Journey Towards The Middle
by AllMightyClap
Summary: Exiled for past transgressions, Jafn (Yafin) must live out the remainder of his days in isolation on the ancient home world of his people. Meanwhile an aspiring archaeologist, Silica Bloteye is on her way towards the newly discovered land in the west to set up campsites and study the over grown ancient cities. (As this is my first Story I welcome criticism.)
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own Splatoon.**

* * *

 **Prologue**

High above the tallest peaks; far above the clouds, there was an object. Its silver-blue colored surface lightly reflected back the magnificence of the planet it was orbiting. Its silhouette against the blackness of space looked to be in the shape of a large block-like submarine. On the object was a name painted on its side that read Ending Light in bold light blue letters. Large shaded windows that lined up and down on its sides could be seen. In one of the many windows a masculine figure could be seen staring out onto the planet below. His hair was as black as the darkness of space and long enough to reach his lower back. His round face and brown eyes were average among his fellow kinsman that continued walking past him; some sharing a glare at him as they walked by. The only thing that made him stand out was the markings on his face.

They are very prestigious markings among his people. Thick light blue symmetrical lines that started on his cheeks and went up over his eyes ending just above the brows. Only the social elite may wear this colored markings in such a way. But here on this ship, he was an outcast. His mark just singled him out for those who see it. The armor on his body didn't help to much either. He was wearing a skin tight black bodysuit with the same type of markings from his face on said suit running from the shoulders to his wrists. It also held special attachments like silver armored shoulder padding on his left shoulder that signified his rank... His old rank. He had similar padding on his chest that made him look more muscular than what his actual appearance was.

He continued on standing in that spot starring as if the planet would be the last thing he would see. In many ways this will be the last time he will see such a thing with his own eyes.

"Earth... What a magnificent sight; to see the homeland of our ancestors. To bad for you that you will never see it like this again or any other planet for that matter." Said an old scruffy voice from behind.

The man behind him was dressed in a similar appearance, but had light green marking instead of blue along with thin swirls, signifying him as the captain and owner of this ship. His gray hair also reached to his back, even with the receding hairline being prominent on his head. His blue eyes looking to where the person he was speaking to starred at.

"Yeah... Too bad..." He replied in a sad tone.

"Some say that your punishment should just be the airlock and let you burn up in the atmosphere as we pass by." The captain said, not taking his eyes off the planet. But after a few minutes of silence the old captain decided to ask a question.

"So why did he chose Earth?" "..Why?.." "I mean out of all the choices to be banished in the Orion arm, he chose a world of our ancestors." He turned to look at the man for a moment, but then turned back to his original gaze. "To be honest I do not know myself. I thought that my past transgressions would warrant the prison planetiod Xela or at least an execution." The old captain took his gaze from the planet and looked at the man next to him. He decided to ask something else.

"Jafn... I and many of my fellow captains and kin have known and helped you and your brach family for over many centuries. I am just wondering why you never asked for our-" The captain begun but was quickly interrupted by the communications link going off in his ear. The man known as Jafn could already guess what's going on.

"Is it time?" Jafn asked "Yeah it's time... I'll escort you to the hanger" Replied the captain.

They both then turned to their left and walked in the direction of the hanger. As they walked Jafn found it difficult to keep on going with the thought that he would spend the rest of his days alone on that planet. Would he go insane from the loneliness? Commit suicide from the depression of loneliness? It didn't help that he went under genetic augmentations that have increased his lifespan for up to seven centuries and that was without the aid of the armor he was currently wearing. It also didn't help that he was also only twenty-five, so old age is nearly a millennium away. He was scared, not of what was down there of course. No, he was scared of losing his sanity that comes with isolation. He read on what happens to those in isolation. He has even seen an ancient film about a man on an island with a bloodied ball as a friend to slow the progression of insanity.

"I hope you've made your peace, we're nearly there. Any last parting words or requests, Jafn?" Said the old captain.

Jafn looked toward him and manage to put on a forced smile. "I am glad it was you and your ship that is seeing me off to my exile Captain Louis."

The captain looked at him and nodded in understanding."Indeed, I too am glad that I was able to do this. The others that wanted to do this never intended to even enter this system, they most likely would have throne you out the airlock near a star." Jafns smile quickly turned into a frown at hearing that.

"I really wished you would have shared your plans with us before you did that stupid stunt of yours all by yourself. That other kinsmen of yours that will take your place is not a person I look forward to serving under." Captain Louis continued.

"... Me too..." Jafn replied in a more saddened tone.

As they walked in to the hanger Jafn could see a two armed guards looking at him. One gave him a sympathetic look, the other a look of anger and mistrust. They were standing next to a large vehicle, it was an atmospheric transport.

"This was your father's personal transport during the lunar wars at Zeta Reticuli. It was a gift from him to me before he left on that expedition. It will be your ride down to the surface where we will leave you at a suitable hunting ground to live out the remainder of your days. If there are any finale requests lets here them." Said the captain.

Jafn just stared at the ship before saying "Can I have a-" "No! You can't have any guns." Captain Louise quickly interrupted him in a serious tone. "Then can I at least keep my armor and have an Rotter-Spear." Jafn said to the captain in an equally serious tone.

"Very well, hand him an R-Spear after you drop him off." He looked to one of the soldiers guarding the craft.

The guards quickly did a salute over their chest acknowledging his order. They then quickly went into the ship through a hatch on the lower right side. Jafn preceded to follow after. He stopped just for a seconded to quickly turn around and give a final salute over his heart to the his elder.

"I am glad of your continued loyalty to my family Captain Louise... I will miss you all."

The captain said nothing but returned the salute in kind. Jafn could have sworn he saw something coming down his face but brushed it off. He quickly turned back to the ship and went in. Once he was aboard he quickly took a seat next to one of the guards that previously showed a look of concern earlier. The one that showed a scowl on his face was there too.

"Why are we not putting him in chains?" Asked the angry guard from earlier.

"His actions may have been dishonorable, but his intentions were true." Replied the concerned guard.

"Traitors should be hung or put to the Pike not banished. Especially to our sacred world." The angry one replied back with his tone slightly raised.

"It's just a rock, there are many more like it. The thought of it being sacred is ludicrous." This seemed to have made him angrier.

He was about to say something when the cockpit door opened. The figure who stepped out was feminine and held a demeanor of superiority. Her green and white markings signified her as the captains second in command.

"Enough with the chit-chat! We are about to take off, you can continue on how punishment should be dealt with and other religious interpretations in the mess hall or your quarters later." She said in a very annoyed tone like this was not the first time they were arguing about this topic.

She walked over to Jafn and took a seat across from him on the other side strapping herself in for the ride. She looked towards Jafn and gave a small smile.

"We have meet before... During the feasts your family would hold. It's a shame we have to meet again in this situation."

Jafn recognized her now that she is across from him. Her light blond hair was braided into a thick pony tail. Her tight black body suit left little to the imagination, but it to was covered up in a similar type of armor he was currently wearing. Her blue eyes where staring at him, seeing that he has recognized her. He was going to say something till he felt the craft move.

"Looks like we are moving. We will be there in twenty minutes." She said while getting comfortable.

"Kiki was it?" Asked Jafn unsure if he remembered her name correctly.

She looked back at him. "Yeah, glad that you remembered." she said with a smile. "I remember that we use to play together during the parties with the other children."

"I remember that. So why are you escorting me to my own little prison planet?" Asked Jafn trying to make light of his situation.

"Because I want to know something." Said Kiki quickly showing a serious expression on her face..

"What is it you want to know? Why I'm hear? Every one already knows." Replied Jafn wondering why she was really here.

"No not that. I just wanted to know why. Why would you try and kill the Emperor? You aren't even close to being next in line. And the one that is next in line is one of your rivals. What did you think you would accomplish?"

The two other guards who where not doing anything quickly lifted up their heads and stared at him in anticipation to his response. Jafn thought to himself on whether or not he should answer.

"I had my reasons." Jafn deciding not to answer.

"Obviously." The angry guard chipped in.

Jafn just gave him a glare before turning back to Kiki. "If you really want to know, ask your father. It should be obvious to those in command on why I did what I did." Jafn said before turning and leaning back in his seat trying to get comfortable for what he assumes would be the last seat he may every sit in.

Knowing he was not going to say anything else she decided to change the subject. "So it has been what twelve thousand years since any one has checked up on this planet?" She asked no one in particular.

The guard that was calm through the hole ride decided to reply. "Actually it was twelve thousand five hundred years ago when we last received contact from those that stayed behind. Plus there has been a group stationed on mars that have been monitoring the planet for the past century. My friend that works there said that the planet is suitable for recolonizing, but is not fully healed. Something about the sea level being to high still"

"But there is land there already I can see it from hear, why are we not creating new settlements?" Asked Kiki.

"The Empire is busy with building up three other colonies and their infrastructures at the moment. It also doesn't help that the raids from the Argons keep setting back the colonies every few years." Replied the angry guard.

"Plus from what my friend has told me, multiple primitive species has evolved enough to start building civilizations on a small island chains from what used to be my ancestors homeland. That has also been one of the many causes to the delayed recolonization of Earth."

"Hue, I did not take you to be some one so well informed. Seeing as you are always with Jack there." Said Kiki.

"Hey!" Shouted the angry guard from whom Jafn assumed to be Jack.

"Though it is surprising that multiple species could evolve such intellect in such a short amount of time" Said Kiki.

"Our modern species have held this form for over a few million years, our recorded history only goes back twenty-four thousand years ago. Who's to say they weren't already intelligent before we left. Our absents probably aloud them to flourish."

Jafn opened his right eye taking note of the conversation. He quickly lost interest once they started to share war stories. He may have been military, but he was born into it. He found the sciences more interesting. It wasn't long till he felt the ship starting to decelerate. He looked out in to the monitor to see that they were coming up to a large mountain.

"This mountain was one of the many staging areas during the mass exudes of the planet. I think they called it Mt. Everest." Said Kiki. "You will be dropped of here. I'm told that it is still capable of running its old fusion power generators, and it still has its food stocks partially filled of twinkles or something like that."

"You expect me to eat ten thousand year old Twinkies?" Asked Jafn with surprise in his voice. The thought of eating something so old made him a little queasy.

"No. But what ever is in there will last you long enough till you do find some fresh food when hunting. Plus you shouldn't be complaining.

Jafn remained silent. He knew he got off lucky for what he did and that he should be thankful, but the thought of loneliness from earlier crept back up on him. This is going to be hell. It wasn't long till the ship came to a complete stop. He stood up with the guard in tow and walked to the end of the door. Once it opened he quickly added to his last thought out loud. "A frozen Hell"

He then stepped out of the craft and took ten steps away from the rampart. As he turned he saw the Rotter-Spear he asked for earlier shoot past him near his feet. He didn't know whether he flinched or not due to his shivering from the cold.

"There's your R-spear. I'm also sending you the the access codes to all of the old basses on this planet to your armors computer system so you won't be bored here for the next few centuries."

"The other basses are on different continents. Not to mention how would I get to ones on this one?" Ask Jafn feeling the gravity of his situation pulling him down the more he stares at the craft in front of him.

"You can walk to the ones on this continent and swim to the others" She said in a dry humorous tone. "maybe you'll get lucky and find one of those ancient flying vehicles in the garages of this base or the others nearby. But in any case I hope you live out your life in peace. Want me to send anyone a message before I go?" she finished.

"Tell my family I am sorry for the shame I brought them. And tell the Emperor I hope he chokes on his-" He was cut off by the noise of the door quickly closing and the speakers of the ship turning on.

"Will do Jafn. Will do." Said Kiki.

And with that the ship rose and ascended up into the sky. He stood there for what felt like hours just staring up into the sky. It got to the point where he couldn't feel his face from the icy winds that kept blowing on it.

He then decided to go and find the nearest entrance to the mountain behind him. He looked towards his wrist and out popped a holographic display of the surrounding area. He then located the entrance and proceeded to make his way towards it. Once he made it to the entrance he notice some archaic form of Mandarin Chinese on the walls. He payed them no mind for now and continued towards the entrance. Once there he found an ancient terminal linked to the door. He pressed the buttons on it and without surprising him it didn't work.

"No power to turn on, that is just great." He said in frustration.

He then looked through his armors systems and attempted to reroute its power to get the terminal to turn on through a wireless link... _"This is ancient tech of course there would be little to no wireless power transfer units installed on a terminal."_ He quickly thought to himself. Lowering himself he tore open the side of the terminal and grabbed from what he assumed to be the power cables and directly hooked them to his armor. He then grabbed his rotter-spear and made the attempt to fix the terminal. He was glad he asked for it and thankful it doubled as a tool and a weapon. When he thought he was done he pressed a button and just as it was turning the exposed wiring blew out on the sides both shocking him and knocking him down to the ground. He sat backup to look out into the cold wilderness.

"This is going to take a while." He said in a more frustrated tone as he went back to work.

* * *

It was early morning in Inkopolis and many of its residents were up and about getting ready for the day. Some people where walking or riding to work still trying to wake up, yawning here and there and others were up with a more chipper attitude with eyes wide open focused on their tasks at hand. For Silica she was in the latter.

She woke up earlier than she normally would have, and needed the time to get ready and double check all of her packed luggage. She would be taking them with her on the expedition to the new lands across the sea to the west of Inkoplolis. She was ecstatic about this opportunity not just to explore new lands but to study with the top archaeologist that has taken her on as an apprentice. She will be spending most of her summer in those new lands and won't be able to play Turfwar with her friends, but the opportunity was to big to miss. She always loved looking at the foils in the museum and now she hoped to go out and find her own. Maybe if she gets lucky she will find one the will be on display.

She was almost finished now. All that needed to be done was to check herself in the mirror and make sure she looked alright for the travle. Her orange tentacles where tide back so they would not get in the way. She wore plain green shirt with brown shorts that ended above her knees. She then put on a small brown vest that would be able to hold her tools once she started to dig. Her hazel eyes perked at seeing that she was ready. Hearing a honk outside twice she quickly put on her brown boots and grabbed her luggage. In it was nothing but cloths to last the rest of the year and a few books to pass the time while she sailed to the new land. She was out the door when she saw the taxi ready to pick her up. But before she got in she heard someone call out to her.

"Mourning Silica!" "You off to the new lands?" It was her friends Lier and Clare.

Lier was the same age as her being at fourteen years wearing a white shirt with a design that said Splatfest on it in bright blue which matched his blue tentacles and eyes. His black jean were bagging a little over his white shoes. His older sister Clare being at twenty-three years of age was wearing a similar shirt, but was wearing black short shorts reviling a good portion of her thighs. Her silver eyes look at her waiting for a response.

She quickly replied with a nod. "Yep! And I can't wait till I get there. Not only will I be exploring the new lands I will be doing it with professor Merlin one of the best in her field."

"Bring us back a fossil and make sure its a cool one like the ones at the museum." Said Lier

"We'll get you something from the Splatfests you'll be missing and hold it for you." Said Clare.

"I'll make sure it will be a cool one buddy, and thank you Clare." Replied Silica as she took her seat in the cab.

"Mind if we ride with you to the pier, we have some things to do over there. We'll split the fair." Said Clare.

"Sure why not. I could use the company." Silica said with a smile.

With that they all went into the cab squeezing together in the back. The ride to the pier would take ten minutes or so she wanted to pass the time with some chat.

"So what business do you two have at the pier?" Asked Silica.

"We heard that there was a light in the sky last night to the west." Said Lier. "So a bunch of people are setting up to see if its there again."

"Like aliens!?" She asked again.

"I told him its going to be a waste of time. The chances of it happening again are low." Clare said while stretching in her seat, purposefully knocking into her little brother.

"Hey! Well it could, you don't know that." He said getting annoyed by his sitters antics.

"So what is so important over in the new lands that is worth the attention of so many archaeologists?" Asked Clare, "I heard that even the Octlings are chipping in on the expeditions. Are you going to be alright working along side those things."

Silica frowned at her friends choice of words. She always said things like these about Octlings, but she chose to ignore it for now and try to relive her friends worries.

"There is no need to worry, I'm told the camps are separate further inland. Only the first few camp sites are integrated just for sharing information with each other. Mainly because there is no communications network set up yet, except for the growing port there." She then looked out the window of the cab thinking of how to answer her first question.

She could see the port coming up along the coast with the ship she was supposed to ride in the harbor. It looked like it was just now pulling in to port. She kinda feels bad for the crew, they have been going back and forth for weeks without stop. She hopes that they switched people every time they reached land.

"As for the reason, I heard that there are old ruined cities there... Every where! Though they are so old they are covered up by most of the jungles and forests. Me and my new boss will be going to set up a new campsite further inland though. Something about wanting space from the other archaeologist." She finished.

"Looks like were almost there. Dang that ship is bigger up close!" Lier exclaimed happily. "So who built the cities and are they as big as Inkopolis?" He added.

"I wasn't told who build them and as for their size we don't know either. Partly due to the fact that the trees are obstructing the surveyors." Silica replied.

It looked like he was about to ask another question till they all felt the cab stop.

"Here's your stop little ones" Said the old cab driver.

She looked out side the cab and could see that they were indeed here. She handed her share of the fair to diver and got out to get her things. She could see that there were people getting on and off the boat bringing supplies back and forth. She then saw on the pier a bunch of people whom she assumed to be the sky watchers all setting up there telescopes. Why they would come so early for something that would happen latter in the evening stumped her. She had reason to come early mainly because the ship will leave in the hour. She then turned to say her good bye to her friends.

"So this is it, you wont be seeing me till the end of the year." She said sadly stretching out her arms for a hug.

"Have a safe journey Silica." Said Clare.

"And find me lots of cool stuff, like the skull of them things at the museum." Said Lier before getting elbowed in the side by Clare. "And stay safe Sil." He sheepishly added while giving her a hug with his sister.

"I will, but I have to ask. If I do find one of those skulls, what would you do with it?" She really wanted to know.

"What any normal person would do with a skull of course." He answered vaguely.

She stared at him wondering what he really planed to do with a fossilized skull. She didn't even want to put much though in to it. She then let go of the hugs and turned to head towards the ship.

"Well until you tell me, all you're getting is a rock. Bye, see you guys next year!" She said as she walked away.

"So long Silica!" Said Clare as she waved goodbye.

"See ya latter!" Said Lier waving goodbye as well.

She turned one more time to look back towards her friends and smiled. She was happy that they saw her off, and that they'd offer to get her something from the Splatfest she would be missing tomorrow. She was glad to have them as friends. She then turned back towards the boat and proceed towards it. As she got closer she could see an old inkling with a big white beard greeting the people as they went up the rampart.

"Ello lil'one. Who are you and what be your business on this here vessel?" Asked the old Inkling in a thick yet clear seamen accent.

"I am Silica Bloteye under archaeology team thirteen headed by professor Merlin." She said with confidence.

"Bloteye... Bloteye... Ah! There you are! Miss Bloteye." Said the old inkling. "Allow me to welcome you to the Scuttling Crab. I am First Mate Keltpton of this ship and I make it a point to know who is aboard said ship. Your cabin is on the lower deck of the ship; just take the stares and go to the right, room 203." He said as he pointed to the direction.

"Thank you Mr. Kelpton. If I may ask, who is the Captain of this ship?" She said as she picked up her luggage again ready to go up the rampart.

"Ah that be Captain Octavio" Said Kelpton in a matter of fact tone. "She's the granddaughter of General Octavio and she runs this ship with an iron tentacle. I'd stay out of her way if I were you lil'one. She doesn't like to be bothered about "mundane" things like archaeology. No offense of course" Said Kelpton.

"Non taken. I know a lot of people aren't that interested in digging, but I'll keep it in mind to not bring it up when around her. Thank you." She said as she walked past him up the rampart.

"Your welcome lil'one. Next!" He said as he turned towards a tall Urchin.

The walk to the cabin was short, as she quickly found her quarters. Once there she opened her door and found the room to be small and cozy. She quickly put her things away and decided to lie down and start reading up on her archaeological and anthropological books. After an hour of reading she heard the ships communication system go off.

"Attention everyone this is your Captain Octavio speaking. Everyone is aboard and we will now begin our journey towards the growing settlement of New Inktown. We will be there within seven days. It you haven't brought any form of entertainment we will be holding game nights every night from five to ten till we get to our destination and have a pleasant mourning. Octavio out."

After the speakers went silent she went back to reading her books. A few more hours pass until she felt hungry from not eating this morning. She put her book down and decided to go to the dinning area and eat something.

"I wonder what they have to eat?" she thought out loud as she stepped out of her room.


	2. The Journey Has Yet To Begin!

**Disclaimer** **: I do not own Splatoon**

* * *

 **The Journey Has Yet To Begin!**

It has been a few days for Jafn since he managed to get that archaic terminal to work and get in the base. It nearly fried his armors circuitry when he had to add more power so the blast doors could open. But once inside he made it his direct goal to get the old power systems back online.

That was three days ago and now he was almost giddy with excitement. He found the ancient fusion reactors in the lowest levels of the base in an almost preserved like state. The main problem was the wiring throughout the base. They were all chewed up from what he assumed to be one of the few surviving mammals on this planet... rats. But try as he might he couldn't find the little rodents. They must have chewed up the circuitry long ago before leaving or dyeing out which sadden him, he could have made one a pet.

Getting back on track he managed to get the last bits of wiring restored in the panel he was working on for the majority of the systems. All that's left is for him to plug in his armors power systems into the main computers so that he can get the reactor to turn on. He stood up from the exposed wiring and put the panel back over it. He made his way to what he can assume to be the main control room being as it is filled with computers. He then proceeded to hook his armors power systems into the nearest computer and turn it on.

After starting up the computer he came across another problem. The operating system was in the archaic Mandarin. It took him a few hours till he found out how to switch it in his language. It would have been faster if his armors system software would have been compatible. He may need to work in a much needed patch for these computers soon to tune all systems into his language, but that would have to wait. He then navigated the systems files till he found what he was looking for, a manual on how to start and run the reactor. He clicked on the file and started to read.

After about a few hours into the reading he closed the file and opened up the command prompt then started to type in the codes needed for the reactor to start. For a few minutes nothing happened until he herd a synthetic voice that sounded like it was happy through communication systems of the command room.

"所有的系统都在网上，等待命令" said the voice to what he assumed to be the basses A.I.

His armor was fitted with an audio translation device. He quickly turned it on and set it to Mandarin, then asked for it to repeat itself.

"Repeat your previous statement construct." His armor translated it back to the Chinese language.

"所有的系统都在网上，等待命令" It repeated itself and his armor translated the words.

"All system are online and awaiting command." came out of his armors speakers.

"Set all systems into the English language." He said as his armor systems quickly repeated after.

It looked like the A.I. was not going to comply until it chirped back a response only this time in his language.

"All systems are set to English." replied the A.I.

"What is your name construct?"

"My designation is... I'm sorry but those files and others are either missing or corrupted." It said in its still chirpy tone.

"What is your purpose here?" Asked Jafn as he was genuinely curious.

"I am a prototype A.I. that was designed to help in the maintaining of this base and its defenses as well as over see to the evacuations in this region... twelve thousand five hundred sixty seven years ago."

He stopped to think for a moment. The power was on and he was glad about that. But now he has an A.I.? This week isn't looking so bad. "Grrrrruuuuuggghhhhh~" Until his stomach growled. He remembered that he could not get the food storage to open since he has been here.

"What is your propose for being here and activating me? Are you one of the advance teams sent to enacted Operation Genesis?" Asked the A.I.

Jafn looked at the computer as if it has grown a second head. From the name he can take a fair guess at what it means. He steeled himself from his annoying hunger to ask another question.

"No, but is operation Genesis a recolonization project?" He asked.

"Yes, I and my fellow A.I. have been programmed to help assist in these efforts." Replied the A.I. "But if you are not an advanced team then who are you and why are you here?" It then asked.

"I am Jafn I was... banished to this planet. But let me ask you a serious question." He then got up and looked back at the computer monitor. "Can you unlock and open the food storage?"

The A.I. Just paused for what seem like a minute.

"Yes. I can do that." Replied the A.I.

"Good! Then do it now. Also... Since you don't have a name or can't remember it, I will have to call you something other than A.I. or construct. Link up with my suit so we may continue this talk." Said Jafn as he made a quick dash towards the food storage.

"Very well... Your suit seems extremely advanced!" Replied the A.I. energetically through his armors speaker system.

"It is not the top of the line but it does its job." Jafn said as he rounded a corner. Then a thought came to mind. Could the A.I. transfer to his armored suit? He will see about that later. He then tuned another corner and made it to the food storage door.

"It has been over twelve thousand years you know. If there is anything left it is moldy dust by now." Said the A.I.

"Maybe so, but a friend said something about Twinkies." Said Jafn as he pushed the button on the massive door to open it.

"Twinkies?" asked the A.I.

"Aye Twinkies." Jafn said again as he walked through the door in search of these Twinkies or some form of food.

"I do see them on my manifest, but whether they are still edible is another story." Said the A.I.

"I won't know unless I try it" He said as he was looking through the isles of empty shelves with a few cans hear and there that have obviously met their expiration date. He then notice a poptart grabbed it then shook it to see if any thing was in there, but it was empty. Another thought came to his mind. "Poptart" Jafn said as if he had an epiphany.

"What about Poptarts?" Asked the A.I.

"No I mean I will now call you Poptart" Stated Jafn

"..." Poptart was deep in thought considering the name.

Silence fell over them as Jafn just continued to look for any sign of edible food.

"I am not going to be called Poptart." Poptart said in an annoyed tone.

Jafn then found a large box that had no marking on it. He drug it off of the shelf and proceeded to open it.

"Fine. Then how about..." As he opened the box, all he say was one word. "Twinkies!"

"I am not going to be called that either." Said Twinkies sounding even more annoyed.

"No. I mean I found the Twinkies!" Jafn quickly grabbed one and opened it. He took a quick sniff be for taking a bite. "Well... It taste like I'm eating a twelve thousand year old Twinkie." Said Jafn before taking another bite unsure on whether to be disgusted or not.

He then grabbed the box of Twinkies and proceeded to go back to the control room.

"But as for your name I was thinking of... Virgil." Said Jafn as he round the next corner.

"... If I could. I would like a feminine name." Said the A.I.

Jafn paused for a moment without moving. ' _Did the A.I. think it was a female?_ ' thought Jafn

"Okay... Then how about Gwen?" Said Jafn as he took another bite of the Twinkie then continued on walking.

"... I like that name." Said Gwen.

"Glad you like it." Said Jafn as he now pressed the button to open the control room door.

"Is there anything else you need?" Asked Gwen her voice now coming through the speakers in the control room and not Jafns armor.

"Just send me a copy of that manifest you mentioned earlier. Do you also have copies of the manifests in the other regions?" Jafn asked as he sat down at the command computer and began typing away looking for something. "And list off a status report of the base and its systems." He added.

"All regional A.I.'s have copies of each others manifests. Sending you them now." Said Gwen as a file opened itself on the computer Jafn was at.

It listed the manifests along with the condition and status of the base. He look at the manifest for the base first. He skimmed through most of it till a few things caught his eye.

' _Drone Storage: Five Hundred Fifty Three WC-3 Drones, Twenty WC-4 Drones. Three WC-X *Prototype._ ' WC-Drones? As in working class drones? Damn he really is working with ancient tech. Those things are literally nothing compared to the new Bio Droids. He maybe able to give them some upgrades but even an advanced engineer would be limited on how much they can improve such an archaic model.

' _Armory: Thirty Anti-Personnel turrets, One Hundred Specter-Cloaks, One Thousand Stun Rods._ ' Stun Rods? He maybe able to make a few of the drones combat ready and station them as guards. From what? He has not clue. Maybe against these primitives if there is a tribe of them nearby to keep them at bay in case they are hostile.

' _Directors Storage: Ten -Redacted-._ ' That is weird? Maybe he should check that one out later. He then read the last interesting thing out loud.

"Anti-G Vehicle Storage?" Asked Jafn to no one in particular.

"It is were the personal of the base would store the anti gravity vehicles." Said Gwen.

"I know what it is, I am just wondering if anything that is in there is still operational." Replied Jafn as he proceeded to look for any vehicles that my be helpful in leaving this region maybe even this planet.

As he read it, he quickly frowned at the information on screen.

' _Vehicles in storage: Zero._ ' Looks like he's going to be walking on this planet for now. He then read for any thing else that may be useful. He found nothing beside travailing gear and the Twinkies. Maybe the other manifests might have something useful. He then read the manifests of the other bases with all of them listing the same useless things. Until one said something that gave him a little hope.

' _Vehicles in storage: Ten._ ' That's a good start now where is the location of the base.' _Location: Mt. Fuji_ '. He may not know much about the geography of the Earth, but something tells him it may be a long walk... He just hopes it doesn't involve a swim. He then looked up the maps of Earth and began searching for the locations. Once he was done he just sighed.

"It had to be over there didn't it?" Asked Jafn to no one in particular.

From the looks of its location it was to the north east across a small sea, but these maps were outdated. That sea is now a small ocean if he remembered correctly when looking out from the Ending Light a few days ago. He then quickly went back to search through the other manifests in hopes of more nearby bases. He kept reading till he found more of theses vehicle in other basses such as ' _Area fifty-one_ ' and ' _Lunar Base Alpha_ ' all with a vast ocean between them and his current location and the other on the damned moon.

Another thought a cured to him. If he even manages to find these anti gravity vehicles would they even be capable of interstellar travel. He then remembered something that the guard Hue mentioned; something about a base on mars studying the healing process of Earth. Maybe he could...

"Gwen!" Shouted Jafn.

"Yes!?" Gwen shouted back.

"I see on this list that the long range communications system is still able to function." Jafn stated then continued. "Can it be used to listen in on other communication stations?" He asked.

"I think so, but the satellites need to be calibrated and-" She was about to continue but was quickly interrupted by Jafn.

"Good. Turn them on and have them listen to these frequencies that my armor is emitting." Jafn said as he pressed some buttons on his forearm.

From the silence it looked like Gwen was going to protest but ended up conceding.

"Very well. I have the frequenc- That's not surprising..." Said Gwen.

"What is it?" Asked Jafn.

"The Satellite... All of them have been gone through orbital decay, but there is something else... I am detecting it from the short range radio from a satellite that survived orbital reentry.. Some form of audio broadcasting coming from the north east near the city of Xi'an." Said Gwen.

"Can you play it?" Jafn said wondering what is making such a signal.

"Playing it now." Said Gwen.

Jafn listened intently on what was playing thinking it my be one of the martian surveyors studying the primitives or the sea levels. Maybe he can locate them and take their vehi- " _Woomy!_ "

"What the-?" Said Jafn as-

" _Wooooomy! Acler kibert- '_ _ **shhhhhhhhhhh**_ _' jokeinna Callie- '_ _ **shhhhhhhhhh**_ _' Staaaaaa Freeeee_! ' _ **shhhhhhhhhhh**_ _-_ '" The voices on the broadcast stopped suddenly then intelligible music started to play as if he was listing to a radio station.

"Please turn it off." Asked Jafn.

"Right... Have you humans made up a new language in the past twelve thousand years, because I don't have any thing in my data banks on what we just herd." Replied Gwen.

"No... Although some languages have changed and mixed with others on certain colonies." Said Jafn as he went back into deep thought.

Apparently these must be the primitives that the guard mentioned on the transport. He thought they were the type of primitives that threw rocks or fling a certain type of mud. He even thought they might have been a low stone age society. But if they are able to broadcast music through the radio waves than maybe he can communicate with them. Or would they try to catch him and dissect him? His people have done that to other primitives when exploring a new planets. He should really think this over more, but the thought of spending the rest of his days eating Twinkies with a feminine A.I. under a mountain fortress was not appealing.

Tricking these primitives into worshiping him as a god was shot down as quick as it popped in his head. If he were to ever pass on or leave them on there own; they may declare holy wars in his name, which doesn't sit well with him. Plus they may be a little smart for that anyway... But his people at this stage of technology where known to be gullible. But he shouldn't.

Maybe he should study them up close himself. He saw on the manifest that there were old cloaking technologies in the armory. But what about Gwen? He has seen soldiers with companion A.I. in covert operations succeed more than ones with out. But would she be compatible with his operating system. Only one way to find out.

"Gwen." Said Jafn trying to get her attention.

"Yes Jafn?" Replied Gwen wondering why he was silent for the past few minutes.

"I am going to leave and study the source of this broadcasting. I want you to make yourself compatible to my armors programming so I may take you with me once I leave." Jafn finished as he fetched the maps from the computer.

Looking through the ancient maps, he found the city of Xi'an. It was in the center of ancient china. Though it may now be considered a port city if it were still inhabited.

"I am unable to comply with that request Jafn." Gwen said in a sad tone.

Jafn stopped what he was doing and looked back towards his monitor.

"Why is that?" Asked Jafn.

"It is my protocol to stay here in charge of the systems until I am decommissioned for later use. Plus I can not leave base unless some one is in command. Plus do you really need to leave? Can't you just stay here?" Asked Gwen

Jafn was not going to take no for an answer mainly because he doesn't want to travel alone or be cooped up in this place all the time. But her other statement... somewhat made him pity her. ' _Did this A.I. suffer from abandonment issues?_ ' Thought Jafn as he looked back at the monitor.

"I am not going to stay here forever Gwen. But maybe we can work around your protocol." Said Jafn

"We can?" Asked Gwen hopefully.

"I will set you up with a drone body of sorts. Your mind will be in it and you'll still be in charge of its systems through the communications array. Though we may need to extend the range of the communications systems the farther we go." Jafn said as he started looking back through the manifests for any parts that he may need.

"That will be acceptable." Said Gwen in a more cheerful tone.

"Good. Bring all of the working drones online and have them repair the base and themselves to pre-flood conditions. Have seventy six WC-3's, all of the WC-4's and WC-X's go to the vehicle engineering room. I am going to be there for a while upgrading, repairing, and reprogramming them personally. Then have three WC-3 Drones retrieve all of the cloaks and an equal amount of stun rods and bring them to me as well... And some Twinkies." Said Jafn as he made his way to the engineering room he found days ago when he was fixing the wiring.

"Sixty present of the WC-3 Drones are operational and have now begun repairing themselves and the surrounding area. The WC-3's, 4's and X's are on their way as well." Said Gwen as her voice was now coming through the armor. "I am curious. Why do you need all of these Drone? I thought you just needed one for me?" She asked.

"I'm going to make one of those X's your personal drone. The others are going to be used to help me set up camps and collect resources on our travels. The cloaks and stun rods are for defensive proposes from the primitives." Jafn said as he was taking the stares towards the engineering room.

"Primitives?" Asked Gwen wondering what he meant.

"The ones that were broadcasting that strange language." Said Jafn as he went up the stares.

They both remained silent until Jafn reached the doors of the room seeing the drones enter it. This is Jafns first time seeing such an old piece of machinery run as if it were new. They had a humanoid form with exposed hydraulic systems where the tendons on a human would be. They were all black with orange stripes running up and down on there legs. Their heads were in a square like shape with rounded edges. He then noticed the 4's and saw that they were of similar design but more slimmer and their hydraulic tendons were covered up with blue plating. It would seem that the 4's where the security drones of this base as they each had a personal riot shields strapped to their backs.

He then saw one of the X's. It looked more human than anything. How he can tell it was a machine was its wight-blue skin. It actually looked more like an android than a drone. They must have been the precursors to the modern bio droids back home. He was unsettled by it though, mainly because it was both naked and took the form of a female.

"Gwen pleas have some 3's look through the armory for some female-" He then saw the other X's but one was a male version and the other was another female. "And male clothing and armor that will fit the X's." He said as he went into the engineering room.

As he walked in he saw that all of the drones were lining up awaiting a command. He pointed towards one of the female X's and signaled it to follow him towards a workbench with a computer near it.

"I might as well start on your body Gwen." Said Jafn looking for the appropriate tools. "Pleas link up a copy of all of the drones simple A.I. programming and schematics." Said Jafn as he peeled the skin off of the head of the X and opened its metallic skull.

"It is done Jafn." Gwen said in a happiness he never heard an A.I. express.

"Thank you Gwen." Said Jafn as he quickly went to work on the first machine of today.

* * *

It has been three days since the Scuttling Crab left the port of Inkoplois; and now Silica was board. She still had her books, but she has already read them multiple times before she ever came aboard the ship. She has kept herself in her room for most of the time, only coming out when she needed to eat. She was now currently walking towards the game night room; this time not to eat, but to see if there might be anything there to do. She was almost there when she felt the ship lurch forward. She quickly grabbed a hold of the walls to keep her balance.

Silica waited for a moment as the ship was settling down. Once it did she then went back to walking down the hall toward the door. Pushing the door opened she saw what could be described as a comedic mess. Every one who was in the middle of a board game had all there pieces scattered across the floor and others where on said floor picking them up. While the snack bars food were mixing with among themselves on the table and the floor. It looked like every one was upset. because they all must have all been in the middle of their games.

All except one group who were playing some card game together. She looked over there and saw a familiar face. It was the first mate of the ship, a some what old Inkling that served under an Octarian Captain. It kind of seemed weird the more she thought about it, but she opted to go over there seeing that is the only group that had yet to give up on their game.

As she approached she saw that First Mate Kelpton recognized her. It looked like he knew what she was going to do and leaned over and whispered into the ear of the female Inkling with pink tentacles and eyes wearing a wight shirt and black pants. Said Inkling quickly got up and went over to another table and grabbed an empty chair.

As Silica finally reached the table she got a clearer look at who was present. Beside First Mate Kelpton, there was that Inkling girl who was now coming back with the extra chair, an Octarian female with dark crimson tentacles and green eyes. And some Octarian tentacle that has not... or could not take a bipedal form.

"I see you're out and about lil'one. Pleas, have a seat and join us in a friendly game of poker." Said Kelpton as the pink tentacle Inkling was now handing the chair to her.

"Thank you Mr. Kelpton" Said Silica as she went to sit down.

"Hi! I'm Irene Coral! What's your name!" Said the Inkling with pink tentacles as she went to sit as well.

"Silica Bloteye." She said as she looked at the other two expecting them to give their names too.

"Hector Orvanio." Said the Octavian tentacle.

"I'm Captain Serena Octavio" Said the Octavian female in an authoritative tone.

Silica went silent as she and Serena looked towards one another. She knows she is an ally, but something just felt off about her. The way she was starring did not put her at ease. Or was it just in her head? In any case she grabbed her cards and started to play with them.

A few minute pass of silence except for the chips every now and then being thrown in.

"So..." Started Kelpton getting the attention of every one.

"If I remember correctly lil'one, you are going to be assigned to Professor Merlin. Is that correct?" Said Kelpton trying to start a conversation. "Aren'cha a little young to be here any ways. What about your school?" Asked Kelpton as he delt all of the cards.

"Yes that's correct. As for school there is going to be a college built in New Inktown during the summer. The Professor is going to help teach there when we're not on expeditions. Plus I'm going to be fifteen soon for your information." Said Silica as she tried to keep her poker face. She had a good hand!

"Compared to all of us, fifteen is very young lil'miss." Said Kelpton as he placed half of his chips in the pile. "You might actually be the youngest to immigrant to the colony excluding the native born children."

"New Inktown is not even two years old yet. How are there native hatchlings running around now?" Aske Silica as she matched his chips.

"You see when a boy cephalopod and a girl cephalopod lov-" Keplton began, but was quickly interrupted.

"I know the process Mr. Kelpton! I mean why would they not wait till the basic infrastructure was set up?" She asked still feeling flustered by what he was going to say.

"Some people can't wait. I know I didn't when I got there... I fold." Said Hector as he folded. "Man I can never catch a break when playing with you guys." He said as he looked towards the the others except Silica.

"Anyways what are you going to do specifically when you get there." Asked Irene as she placed all of her chips in the pile.

"I am going to learn how to read and translate the ancient writings in the ruins and try to find out who built them. No one nose who built it still. Some say it was an ancient society of Inklings or Octarians, but..." Said silica as she was wondering if she actually had the best hand at the table now.

"I'm all in too." Said the captain. "Who's to say it was them any ways. What about those things in the museum back at Inkopolis." She added.

"Captain with all do respect those things had small skulls and large bodies. At best they were tribal beasts. It must have been one of us sea critters." Said Kelpton as he did the same with his chips.

"Uhhgg this is why I hate talking about archaeology around you Drent you always find away to make it feel like its mundane subject. Just try and keep an open mind about the creatures or at least humor the idea." Said Serena as she glared daggers at Kelpton.

Silica now understands why Mr. Kelpton suggest not to talk about archaeology with her. She seems passionate about the idea of those things being the progenitors of the ruins as if it was fact. Then quickly looses interest in it when some one reminds her of the 'logical' way of thinking. She to has had her doubt of the 'logical' way. She then put everyone of her chips in the pile too.

"I was told by that you though that stuff as 'mundane'." She asked wondering if what she really thought.

"It is mundane, but the thought of a long dead ancient race that was advanced in culture and technologies makes it less of a mundane subject." Said Serena as she palced all her cards on the table.

Kelpton and Irene did the same action as well. All that was left was for Silica to show her cards. She then showed them and to their surprise she won.

"Welp I'm out five hundred" Said Kelpton as he reached into his pockets and retrieve his wallet. "You had a great poker face there lass."

' _Wait... They were playing with cash?_ ' Thought Silica as she looked at the wads of cash in front of her.

"I didn't know we were playing for money." She said in disbelief. "If I had lost I would have lost my rent money for the month.

"Ha ha ha ahhhh... If you had lost you would have been working on this ship till you payed it off then." Said Serena. "Normally when some one tells us that they don't have cash is when they lose and try to get out of paying. In fact that's why Irene is here, she tried to be a wise girl and failed. Her payments ended a week ago actually."

She looked at Irene who just returned a blush. She then saw the Captain get up and stretched as well as Kelpton and hector..

"Ahhh this was fun and all, but I'm going to be needed back at engineering soon." Said hector as he jumped from his seat and waddled off."See Ya."

"Well I got nothing better to do for another hour. Want to still hang Silica?" Asked Irene as she got up. "Don't forget your winnings." She added as Silica was getting up too.

"Ye-Yeah" She said timidly as she hesitantly stuffed them in her pockets.

"Don't be to long Irene. Even though you payed off your debts, your working contract ends when we reach New Inktown." Said Serena.

Silica then followed Irene out of the game room an into the hall.

"So what do you want to talk about?" Asked Silica as she couldn't think af anything to talk about.

"I don't know... I thought you would have something interesting to talk about as you are the archaeologist. I was supposed to be in New Inktown as a camp guard for the archaeologist three weeks ago." She said as she laughed at herself.

"Which camp site?" Asked Silica.

"Well if they will still take me they might make me an expedition guard to see if I really am up to it, but I originally applied to be an interior guard. I had to bail my first interview... I just hope they will be understanding." Said Irene.

"They might be. Awwww that's so cool!" Exclaimed Silica as she saw a large whale breach the surface through one of the windows she passed. "Do you know what kind of animals roam the new lands?" She asked.

"Yeah that is cool. Can never get tired of watching them myself. As for the animals... there are quite a few birds I never seen before along with packs of these large hairy creatures that travel in packs." Irene said while looking out a window. "It makes me wonder what else is out there." She added.

Silica then walked away from the window and began to walk to her room along with Irene in tow. She wonders what else she could talk about, but was brought out of thought by Irene starting up another conversation.

"So how long do you plan on staying at Inktown?" Asked Irene.

"I plan to stay there till the end of the year, but I am open to the idea of staying there till next summer. What about you?" Stated Silica as she and Irene made it to her room.

"I may stay there, but I am more interested in owning my own land. I heard that the unexplored mountains are up for grabs." Said Irene as she walked in and sat on Silica's bed.

"Why the mountains?" Asked Silica as she thought it was weird.

"Well to dig for minerals of course. Inktown is a growing port with a large Octarian population. Those guys are little geniuses when it come to crafting. Strange that not many of them can maintain full bodies and even stranger is what they can get done as tentacles." Said Irene.

"What about the ruins, I heard you can see them from very far away." Asked Silica.

"Yes you can see them a mile from the port and I'll be honest. Those things give me the creeps. They are nothing but large rock like towers frozen in time." Said Irene as she leaned back on Silica's bed.

"Well I hope it is as you say... the frozen in time part. That would make my job easier when studying them" Said Silica as she was looking for a book to read again.

They both continued to talk like that for about an hour until Irene had to leave and start her shift. Silica then decided to turn in for the night and wait to see what tomorrow brings. But before she fell asleep she looked out her window and saw the night sky. Being so far away from the city she could see so many stars. She decided to count them to quicken her sleep and after a few minutes she fell into unconsciousness.


	3. The Journey Begins!

**Disclaimer: I do not own Splatoon**

* * *

 **The Journey Begins!**

"I should have asked for a insulated helmet with heating and an air filter." Said Jafn as he was walking through a strong snow storm.

He was currently five hundred kilometers away from Fort Everest and for the pass two days of nonstop marching; he was getting tired. It just made him relived that in a few more kilometer he will soon stop the caravan to set up a new relay for Gwen to keep in contact with the base to keep it running. This is going to be the second one; the first has already finished its completion an hour ago from what Gwen has told him. The WC-3 drones he left behind to do the job are now on their way back to the caravan and should be at the camp site by the time they leave.

"But you're already wearing one." Said Gwen as she was trailing right behind him.

She has adapted to her body quite well. She has been walking in a strait line since this morning. Her only problem is that constant smile she has had stuck on her face since she transferred into it. He solved the problem fast though. She is currently wearing a helmet similar to his which he made from scratch after he finished the upgrades to the other drones. He even made them for the other X's. They all had similar features; white with red one way eye shaped visors and small horns protruding on the side of the forehead.

"Mine may be insulated, but I couldn't find the parts for a much needed air filter, I wasn't given a tooth brush... Should have asked for one of those too." Said Jafn bitterly as his shrouded hood blew over him.

"Well you will be pleased to know that the advanced team you sent ahead have already found the small city of Nagqu. They are have even found a droid plant... though it needs major repairs if it's to ever run again." Said Gwen in her happy toned voice.

"Have the rest of the 3's move ahead of us and begin to cannibalize the city for parts... except for places of knowledge like libraries and schools. Have them restore the fusion generators and the plant... And find me a tooth brush." Jafn finished as he slowed to a halt near a ridge.

He can now see the city... Whats left of it anyways. The flooding must have been worse than he first thought. He can see dead coral sticking to buildings and rusted mettle beams of what used to be many buildings infrastructures and support. In the distance he could see the rest of the 3's marching towards a building and dismantling it for parts. He he stood there watching as more of his 3's passed him by all wearing their shrouds and carrying supplies.

"We should prioritize the fusion core fist Jafn. The 3's are not built for expeditionary adventures. They will need to power up soon." Said Gwen as she stepped next to him.

"Very well. Have all of them focus on fixing the local core... It is times like this is were I should have payed more attention in class on those mini cores. Could have made some back at the base. So far my knowledge is limited to the basics of ancient tech. If we had a certain type of material I may be able to make a Z-P-E device." Said Jafn as the 4's started to line up next to him.

"Z-P-E device?" Asked Gwen as she made a motion of thought.

"Zero Point Energy. It pulls the energy strait out of the universe. No need to use resources like Helium 3 to power the fusion cores. It has been the foundation of our empire for over five thousand years." Said Jafn as he began to walk toward the ruins.

"Are all of the human united? Last record I have of your spices; there were only twenty nations left during the flood." Said Gwen following Jafn down the ridge.

"Some what. There are free moons, continents and cities that have a large amount of autonomy and only answer directly to the 'Emperor'." Said Jafn with venom in his voice.

"You don't like that guy I'm guessing?" Asked Gwen.

"We never saw eye to eye." Jafn said as he sighed to calm himself. "He is the reason I am here. I failed in my attempt to have him... deposed." Jafn said the last bit with a growl. "So as to humiliate me; I was banished, making me give up my titles and family name." Jafn finished.

"Well what did he do to warrant an assassin?" Asked Gwen.

"He ordered the complete genocide of an entire primitive people to make room for a new colony which is one of the **many** reasons I have for wanting him dead. If I would have succeeded in the attempt... My rival; he might have became emperor and would have resend the previous orders he has done in secret from the people. Then again he might have banished me too." Said Jafn bitterly.

"Wont there be an uproar about this, even a civil war?" Asked Gwen.

"No. What makes it all worse is that most of the empire will never know about this except those with connections to the expeditionary branch. The expeditionary branch can be considered as the Emperors personnel levy and were the only ones to receive his orders." Jafn said as he swung the sac he was carrying under his shroud, trying to get something.

"I don't feel happy any more..." Said Gwen as she lowered her head.

"I was born into a large military family so it's not all flowers and sunshine especially since I have connections to that damned branch so most of the information I have is mostly bliek." Said Jafn as he grabbed a Twinkie from the sac.

"It's jus- ... how strange." Said Gwen as she quickly turned towards a the largest building that was still standing.

"What is it?" Asked Jafn as he turned towards the building also.

"The 3's have found an antenna that it still intact at the top of that rundown scraper. I recommend restoring that building Jafn." Said Gwen as she pointed towards the top of said building and really want to to change the subject.

Jafn stopped in his tracks to think of what to do next. With all this scrap mettle and rocks around he could build up a nice outpost. Add the fact that there is a drone factory near by; he could build himself an entire workforce to speed it up. The tall building is a plus as well, it would make a good listening post for Gwen to monitor the primitives.

"Gwen go ahead with the restoration and make this the base of operation here. This is going to be our outpost for now. Once the core is online have all of the threes restore the factory. Have the others work on gathering resources from mining and collecting scrap. We shall stay hear until we have a force large enough to continue without us." Said Jafn.

"Orders have been sent... The core is almost complete Jafn." Said Gwen as she too started moving some rocks around. "But why do they need to continue? Just a few would be needed to run and maintain the base." Asked Gwen.

"I used to be in command of thousands if not tens of thousands of troops every day Gwen. I need something to keep me occupied. Building bases and watching the primitives are just a few things I can think of to pass my remaining days here." He said somberly and turning his back from her, signaling that he his done talking.

They remained quite for the rest of the day until the sun had set. By this time their power systems were online and they were now just getting the factory to run. For Jafn though; he was currently in the process of upgrading the factories computer system so it may reprogram the drones to his standards. He was just about done when he heard Gwen walk in. She didn't say anything and just found a spot to sit and to watch Jafn finish up his work. After some time he sat up from the chair and walked up to a console and gave it some commands.

"Is their a reason you are watching me? It's distracting." Said Jafn as he was about to put in the final commands.

"None at all Jafn, but I might as well give you an update to our progress. The restoration of the factory is almost complete and the heating will be turned on shortly. On another note the resource teams have stalked up on the necessary parts and minerals to manufacture six hundred more WC-3's. What purpose will you give them once they are finished?" Gwen asked as she continued to sit in her spot.

"I want them to set up a rail system from here to Everest base and to any other basses we may set up along the way. I am not going to walk back to Everest once I am done observing the locals." Jafn said as the computer shut down.

"I should also inform you that the antenna is up and running. I have a Strong connection to the Everest base and I am getting a more clearer signal from the 'primitives'." Gwen Said as she went deep into thought.

"Anything on their end that stands out?" Asked Jafn turning towards Gwen.

"Yes... Their language. It seems to have some Korean and Japanese words that I can recognize. But their gurgling is making it harder to understand. There are also some words I can make out as a bastardized form of English."

"I guess some humans must have survive long enough after the flood to pass along some words to them, but clearly not enough to maintain a stable population." Jafn added his thoughts on the matter. "Can you compile a translation from what you are hearing?" Asked Jafn.

"No... Maybe. They use human words rarely, but with context I might be able to. It might be even easier to just capture one and learn from there."

"Well keep on listening to their radio waves. I am going to take a much needed nap; I haven't slept since I got here... actually I haven't slept for ten years." Sad Jafn as he blurted out a yawn.

"Shouldn't you be hallucinating then... Or dead?" Said Gwen as she now realized he had absolutely no rest this whole time.

"You should know that modern humans today all receive genetic augmentations. Those in the military even more so. We really don't need to sleep as much unless we are severally injured, sick, or exhausted." Said Jafn as he approached the exit.

"If you don't need sleep then why are you going to nap?" Asked Gwen as she followed him.

"Because I need a break once in awhile and I want to try it. Wake me once it is noon or when the drones are complete. Which ever is first." Said Jafn.

Jafn then walked out of the room he was in and headed for the main offices. It took him a few minutes to get there though do to all of the 3's walking back and forth. Once there he lied down on the floor using the old moldy cushions from the chairs that managed to survive over the years as a bed. He used his sac as a pillow and just laid there thinking of what he should do next after he gets to Xi'an.

' _I could capture one of the primitives like Gwen had suggested._ ' thought Jafn as he tossed and turned to get cozy. ' _But what should I do after I learn what I can from them?_ ' He tossed again trying to change the subject in his mind. ' _I could try to build and up grade more drones. Maybe I could make my own A.I.'s and make an artificial society? Nah. There is already one on in the crab nebula. No need for another one._ ' He then shut his eyes thinking of anything else he might be able to do.

' _I might be able to build my own boats to get to the Mt. Fuji base._ ' He then started to chuckle to himself, but after a few seconds he sighed. ' _What the hell am I thinking. Even if I were to get there and repurpose those anti gravity engines, what then? If I made it to Mars and hijacked their more modern space craft, I will still be an exile not worth the time of day to anyone who might recognize me._ ' His thoughts ended on that as he tossed one more time and found a more comfortable position.

His thoughts then drifted to something else. ' _What will these primitives be like? What would they look like?_ ' His thoughts were becoming more and more blurred as he became more relaxed. For Jafn he never really slept, but he did meditate so that his body could refresh itself when exhausted. It has been quiet some time since he last fell asleep. Which was ten years ago or a bit more, he cant really remember. The darkness that was taking him felt weird, it felt foreign and it unnerved him a bit. But he went on and kept allowing it to slowly take him until everything was black.

* * *

It was now mourning and Silica's radio was playing some music from New Inktown. Apparently they are now in range to receive the public broadcasting. She has been listening to it for some time to pass off the boredom of nothing to do on the ship along with her new friend Irene. There was nothing to do as she already explored explored the ship for two days with Irene and just finished exploring the engineering room yesterday. Her and Irene were just wondering around till they came to said room. It seemed Irene was already familiar to it and payed it no mind until Silica asked if she could take a look inside the room and after a few moments of thought she agreed.

Once inside they had met Hector down there working on the engine and for a guy with no arms he made a good engineer. She didn't know much about boats and their workings and so to past time she kept on asking question after question. Hector to his credit answered all of them while still managing his work. He seemed to have experience on instructing, hence his patient and willing attitude to answer questions.

Once she was done she spent the rest of the day with Irene in her room. They kept on talking about what they would do when they get to New Inktown and what they hope to accomplish. They both ended up falling asleep until the alarm rang to wake them up the next day. And now they have been sitting there for about an hour debating on what to do next.

"I haven't had sleep over since I was your age Sil." Said Irene as she stretched to get up.

"Well having you over has really help to get rid of the boredom. But now what should we do for today?" Silica asked.

Irene was deep in thought thinking on what they should do. She then thought of something that could help pass the time instantly.

"You like books right?" Irene asked already knowing the answer.

"Yeah... do you have some we could read?" Silica asked back.

"Yes... But I wont be able to read with you for to long though. My shift will begin at noon. So lets get dressed and leave quickly." Irene said in haste as she quickly took of the cloths she has been sleeping in. "I am going to use your shower. Is that all right?" She asked.

Silica didn't feel the need to reply and so just gave a nod. She then turn her attention toward her bags and stated to pick out her close for today. She put on a brown tank top with a light green jacket mainly because it was getting colder. She then put on some form fitting pants that ended above her ankles with orange and white stripes running from her pockets. Once she was done she put on her brown boots and sat in on her bed waiting for Irene to finish showering.

As she sat their she looked back at the clock and waited for the time to pass by. But as she sat there she realized something. ' _Today is the seventh day on bored this ship._ ' she said within her mind. She quickly grabbed her cloths all over the room and started to pack them up. She then knocked on the bathroom door to get Irene's attention.

"Irene! Today is the seventh day on the ship."

"What!" Irene yelled over the running water.

Just as to confirm this the ships com system went off.

"Attention passenger. This is your captain speaking. We are about three hours away from the port of New Inktown. Pleas use the time you have to check on all of your belongings. And please meet on the upper deck withing two hours. Thank you and have a nice day." The transmission then ended.

Silica then herd the shower turn off and a scampering at the door.

"Sil I need to get to my room now, I have to many things to pack! I'll see you after I get my final pay from the captain. I know where the expedition site is, so wait for me at on the dock and I'll show you kay!" Said Irene went off in a hurry as she ran out of the room with nothing but a towel covering her upper half.

Silica just stared at the open door. Wondering why Irene didn't just ask her for help so that she could at least have time to put on something decent. ' _She was probably to panicked to think strait._ ' thought Silica as she tried finish up her own packing. ' _Maybe I should go over to her room and help her pack._ ' She thought as she was nearing completion of her own packing.

It didn't take long for her to pack as she made sure to put her close away neatly. Once that was done and over with she picked up her luggage and went strait to Irene's room to help her pack. The walk was short as her room was only strait down the hall near the stairs. Once there she knocked on Irene's door and waited for a response.

"Who is it?" Asked Irene as she made a lot of noise getting towards the door.

"It's me Silica. I thought I might help you pack. You did say you had too much stuff." Replied Silica as she observed the door being open.

"That is nice of you, but... Just give me a second to unlock my door." Said Irene as she quickly closed the door.

"Okay." Said Silica as she heard the sound of locks unlocking from behind the door.

"Okay. Don't mess with the pink bag and just help me fold my cloths. I'll handle the books." Said Irene as she somewhat dragged Silica in her room.

"Alright then." Said silica as she began walk into Irene's room.

But as she stepped in she soon realized it was a good thing she had came by, because Irene's room was an ink stain of a mess. Her cloths were strewn about all over the place and there were a few books lying on the ground. ' _Might as well start with the cloths._ ' Thought Silica as she bent down to pick up some shorts and fold them moving books into a pile of their own which Irene quickly organized as if she was looking for a specific book. She continued like that for the next ten minutes until she came to the bed digging stuff out from under it.

She found more cloths and and another book. She folded up the cloths first and that seemed like those were the last of them. Then she pick up the book and turned it over. She took one quick glance at the book and quickly turned it back and blushed a deep red even to the point that her tentacles changed color. She now knows why Irene seemed to be looking for a specific book.

Irene took notice and to her embarrassment quickly grabbed the book from her. Her pink tentacles being more pinker than usual. She then put the book in the Pink back and said nothing as she continued to clean as if nothing happen.

"Listen if it makes you feel better... I've have similar books back home." Silica lied trying to make Irene feel less embarrassed.

"I appreciate the lie, but please just ignore it. We are almost done." Irene said as she took a deep breath to calm herself and go back to her normal shade of pink.

"Okay. But there is no rush. We have around an hour left till we reach port." Said Silica as she tried to change the subject.

"There is a rush. The Octlings always make sure the passengers are off first and fast, So that their cargo can be transported with little people around as possible. If I had not forgotten I would have been top side by now. Ask for someone to help me with my bags and let us get going." Said Irene as she grabed the pink bag and held onto it for dear life.

Once Silica got help they were quickly escorted to upper deck. Along with the other passengers. Which for some reason was surprisingly few. Only fifty of them to be exact. Well Irene said they do carry cargo so this could explain the short amount of passengers, but what kind of cargo are they carrying.

"Irene." Said Silica trying to get her attention.

"Yeah Sil." Replied Irene.

"What kind of cargo does this ship carry? Food? Supplies? Equipment?" She asked in succession.

"All though I worked here for almost two weeks and been on the boat for three. I really don't know. I was never allowed to go in the cargo area. But there are many rumors from advanced flying craft to just seismic equipment for the expeditions that go further in towards the uncharted mountains." Irene finished as she looked out towards the west.

Silica did the same and squinted. Seeing a large broken object protruding from the water. And some land beyond that.

Though those things sound cool, why would they not used their advanced flying machines to get here?" Asked Silica. "If that they indeed have them it, this boat is completely useless." She finished as she looked on to see more of the objects in the water.

"We there are lots of theories ranging to playing the dumb fool to being scared of... something." Said Irene now noticing what Silica was staring at.

"But why play the fool? Most Inklings already know they are smart. Plus what would they be scared of?" Asked Silica as even more of the objects began to show through the water.

"Ah so you noticed some of the ruins." Said a voice behind her

"Wait those are the ruins? But I thought they were farther inland?" Asked Silica turning towards the voice.

It was the Captain.

"Captain! You didn't he-"Irene began but was cut off.

"I heard everything Miss Coral." Said Captain Serena as she got closer. "Try to stop spreading these weird conspiracy theories." She said in exasperation as if this was not her first time asking her this.

"Yes Ma'am" Said Irene as she straitened up.

"Good. Miss Bloteye please watch over this little pink ink stain. She tends to be very compulsive at times." Said the Captain as she gave a surprise hug to Irene.

"Yeah I seamed to have noticed." Said Silica as she gave a small sigh of relief.

Irene just seemed to have blushed a bit from the hug and returned it back and then they broke it up.

"As for your question. Those ruins are part of the ruins in land. These are from what we can tell was the center of a city once. The ruins near Inktown are just the outskirts of this once mega city." Said the Captain as she handed Silica a pair of binoculars.

Silica took them and looked at the passing objects.

"They look like the top of the buildings back home!" Said silica excitedly as she bounced up and down. "Are they like this in port?" She quickly asked.

"No. In port they are being demolished for their construction method because they lasted all these years threw floods and storms." She then noticed that Silica's smile vanished. "But don't be discouraged from that, there are still more sites like these in the mountains." The Captain quickly added.

"I hope so." Silica said as her smile slowly came back.

"Anyway I just want to say good luck to Irene here. I have to get back at my job soon." She added as she walked away.

"So were do we go when we get there?" Asked Silica as she went back to looking at the ruins.

"Well the first expedition site is right by the security station. Just follow me and you'll be there in no time." Said Irene as she too kept on looking at the ruins.

"Okay then." Said Silica as her happy mood showed itself again.

* * *

The growing colony of New Inktown looked like any other town back home to Silica. In fact its town square was in a similar design to the city center in Inkopolis. The only noticeably major difference was that every thing was new and the architecture was heavily influenced by the ruins she can see in the distance. Each building had and up turned roof that looked similar to a leaf near the edges and some buildings were even based strait off of the Octarians own architecture.

Speaking of Octarians; they were everywhere. She can't even remember the last time she saw this many of them walking around. They did make more than half of the population, but she quickly ignored all of these things for the obvious fact that was there or lack there of.

"Were are all the zapfish?" Asked Silica as she now looked around for any local power station that may house a zapfish, but to no avail.

"Oh yeah most people from out of the colony don't know yet." Said Irene as she head strait towards a direction Silica assumed was the way to the colonial out skirts.

"What don't we know yet?" Asked Silica as she followed Irene.

"We only have a few zapfish on hand for emergencies, but the colonies main source of power comes from the main building over there on that mountain. Some new kind of generator the Octlings built or something. Still in its prototype stage and wont be mass produce for a few more years."Said Irene as she looked to were Silica was looking at now.

"And the buildings design. Those are all new to me. Are they inspired by the ruins that were once here?" Asked Silica as she pointed to a building that had said designs.

"Yep! But shrunken down to our size." Said Irene.

"What do you mean to our size?"

"Last time I was here, there was an intact ruin right over there in perfect condition. It was open to the public so I went to look at it. Turns out who ever built them must have been taller than an Urchin or they compensated for something." Said Irene as she smiled at her own joke.

"Well maybe I might get lucky and find one buried or something. The ones at the museum are incomplete or hunched over in a piece of stone... So how much farther?" Asked silica as she looked at another ruin inspired building.

"I'd say about thirty minutes on foot so if you got any music on that phone please play it. It is going to be a long walk." Said Irene.

"There is no transport system in place yet?" Asked Silica as she played the radio off of her phone.

"None yet, but soon there might be. I heard that the next shipment on the scuttling crab was to be large transport vehicles." Said Irene as she now was listening to Silica's radio.

"Well I hope so. I don't really want to walk all the way to and from the campsites all the time." Said Silica as she too began to listen to her radio.

Which she was now content to listen to the rest of the way. Not that she had nothing to talk about with Irene, but it was just to distract her from the forest they were now going into along a dirt path. All of the trees were very tall with wide branches. They gave off weird feeling as if they were sentient and watching them. She never really like going out into nature, but she will need to get over it soon though.

' _It is going to be my job the rest of the year to look at ruins and... graves in old forested areas._ ' she quickly thought to herself.

They continued on walking until they came upon a patrol that was going in the opposite direction. They just smiled at her and Irene and went on there way. And true to Irene's word they did make it there in thirty minutes.

When they came close to the camp site it looked rather large. If it was any larger actually it might have been considered a small village. In the center of the camp there were permanent dwellings and a fairly used dirt path that went strait through the camp and onto the other sites.

"Okay Sil. This is where we part ways. Over in the center is where you want to go, just ask for an escort to your teams location."

"Why an escort?" Asked Silica

"Remember the furry animals I mentioned before, the ones that travel in packs." Said Irene as she saw that Silica had nodded. "Well they seem to have a taste for sea food." Said Irene in a monotonous voice.

"Oh... Well now I am more nervous." Said Silica as she frowned at the thought of herself being eaten by a fury beast.

"Don't be. Those things have really sensitive noses. A smelly ink shot keeps them away. Anyways have a safe walk towards your camp site. I hope you find an awesome fossil." Said Irene as she gave Silica a hug and wave good bye.

Silica reciprocated the gesture.

"Thanks. And I hope for your guard duties to be safe ones." Said Silica as she turned and made her way towards the nearest escort.

She Walked up to a male octarian in a perfect humanoid form. Which stuck her as odd as this was her first time seeing one maintain this form instead of the average tentacle with legs. She got closer until to him and then spoke.

"I am Professor Merlin's apprentice, Silica Bloteye. I need an escort to her camp site." She said as she got a better look at the octarian.

He had four short orange tentacles with two of them being longer on the front of his head. He had purple markings around his green eye, but what stood out was his other eye. He just wore a patch over it as if it were no longer there. He also wore heavy armor that looked like it had bite and claw marks on his chest plate and forearm protectors. He kept his gaze on her as if he was doing the same thing she was.

"You are in luck, I am the last escort for the day. Lieutenant Geo Giovanio at you serves. I was about to leave for the mountain camp in twenty minutes where Professor Merlin is right now. I also recommend changing your boots for sneakers. It will be almost a days walk to the camp." Said the Octling as he pointed toward her brown boots.

Silica just stared at her boots for a second before setting her sac down and digging through it for her other pair of shoes. She found what she was looking for and quickly put them on. They were both a light pink pair of shoes that could handle the long walk.

"So when do we leave?" Asked Silica as her tone could not hide her excitement.

"We leave as soon as my partner gets back from his lunch. Which should be soon." Said Geo ad he went back to doing what ever he was doing before Silica went up to him. "Just sit tight and wait." He added.

"I'll try." She said as her nervous jitters slowly turned itself into excitement.

Silica just sat there and waited for about fifteen minutes. It felt long, but she would have to enjoy the small rest. The walk to her destination would be awhile. ' _I hope I can see one of their ruins in tacked._ ' she thought to her self before noticing a tall urchin walking towards her and Geo. He was similarly dressed as him but had a larger gun that looked more like a canon than anything else.

"Miss Bloteye let me introduce my friend here. Lieutenant Keven Spear here will also be with us on the journey towards the mountain campsite. I just have a few rules when we are in between sites." He paused for dramatic effect. "Number one. Stay on the path. Two. Stay close. Three. If you see one of them furries, I want you to scream as loud as you can. They have sensitive ears plus it makes them panic and run like idiots." He said with a small smirk.

Silica just nodded and with that the made their way out of the camp and through the forest.

* * *

 **Authors** **Note: Sorry about delay on the update last week. I have had a busy two weeks with my new job starting and all.**

 **Any way I hope this chapter hold you all over for the next week or two.**

 **Until** **then happy readings.**


	4. Over The Hills

**Disclaimer** **: I do not own Slpatoon.**

* * *

 **Over The Hills**

It was a cold and stormy night; the worst one yet that Jafn has been in on this planet. The wind was howling with an ear piercing scream. The fast moving snow flakes blinding and making it difficult to see, because their constant barrage on his visors. Every step was four feet deep with the snow going up above his waist. Which in the processes had significantly slowed him down.

The snow that fell quickly stacked on him and he had to make it a habit to constantly shake himself to get rid of the excess snow. He even had to stop and give his drones a quick patch to do the same thing so that the snow wont melt and freeze again slowing the machines down.

He was determined to get to the next mountain so he could set up the next relay antenna. This would be the seventh relay in total since he left the Mt. Everest base. The fifth one was built in the ruined city of Golog. Its ruins helped in making a second outpost and right now he was thinking of making a third in ancient ruins of Gannan. The sixth relay was built in an even smaller ruined site named Henan.

He always made sure to leave five drones at every relay he built to help maintain it since Nagqu and a hundred at the outposts. Right now he had over three hundred drones marching right behind him. Another Hundred at the outpost in Golog and and equal amount in Nagqu while the rest were setting up a rail system and gathering resources for more drones.

He was closer now and he can see giant looming shadows through the blizzard. It must be the buildings that are still standing in the ancient city.

"Gwen!" Jafn called out suddenly making her snap up her head up at him. "Have the 3's move ahead of us to get this cities old fusion core online. Have a hundred gather the resources and cannibalize any building that is not structurally sound." Said Jafn as he pulled another twinkie from his pack,

"On it Jafn" Said Gwen in a short reply.

Just then over three hundred drones started picking up the pace and passed by Jafn as if there was no four feet snow in their way. Jafn, seeing something he should have done days ago now went into the tracks left behind by some of the drones with Gwen doing the same.

' _Should have done that earlier._ ' Thought Jafn as he turned toward Gwen. "How is the translation coming along?" Asked Jafn as he wanted to know more of the primitive before he saw them.

"Still not progressing as fast as I would like. I just need some visual and contextual references. With those I may be able to speed it up considerably." Answered Gwen. "But I have found a strange signal coming from the north of Gannan and towards the south of the city of Linxia. They seem to be an expeditionary force if I am translating there speech patterns correctly." Said Gwen.

Jafn slowed his walking but did not stop. Gwen kept pace, but said nothing now used to Jafn doing this when he his deep in thought or thinking of what to do next. But it didn't last long as he had an idea struck him instantly. He just needed more information.

"Gwen. Can you see if they will be headed here or to Linxia?" Asked Jafn.

"No I can't. They are remaining stationary. It is most likely a forward camp site." Said Gwen.

This information has added to his plan. ' _Maybe I can observe these ones._ ' He thought. Plus if these are an expeditionary force it means they are far away from any reinforcements. ' _Gwens suggestion might be feasible._ ' He added to his thoughts.

"Gwen!" Said Jafn in an excited tone.

"Yes!" Replied Gwen in an reciprocated manner.

"Scratch the orders to make this an out post. It is now a going to be a strong hold." Said Jafn as he picked up the pace and shook himself again to get the snow off. "I want all material that is usable to make a defensible underground fort in the center of the ruins with the tallest stable building in its center as the look out tower." Commanded Jafn.

"D-done." Said Gwen hesitantly. "Um... Jafn? Why -If I may Ask- are you making a large base?" Asked Gwen.

"I plan on taking one of them." Said Jafn in a nonchalant manner. "And leading the rest to this area." Jafn added.

"Wha- Why? That would defeat the purpose of observation." Said Gwen in a surprised tone.

"I will be observing them... from up close. To gauge their reactions." Said Jafn.

"But it may cause some unnecessary conflict." Said Gwen.

"If they come for the captive I will let them go. If not I will still let them go. I just want to see the character of their species and what better way to find out more of someone than through a conflict. " Said Jafn as he noticed the wind dying down if only a little. "When people are determined it can tell you a lot." He finished.

"Is that so? But should you not be concerned with secrecy?" Asked Gwen in a very worried tone.

"A little, but if you are going to be this worried, then maybe I should do something else." Said Jafn as he now noticed Gwen doing or imitating a sigh of relief.

"Good. I don't thin-" Gwen started but was interrupted by Jafn.

"Don't get the wrong idea. I am still going to abduct one of them, but may be I can take one with out them knowing they are being abducted." Said Jafn.

"What like a sleeping gas?" Asked Gwen.

"No I mean the use of psychology. Force one to follow me on there own; record them a bit and send them on there way." Said Jafn "They would just think that the other is crazy if they started spewing nonsense of a loan figure they were following." Added Jafn.

"Do we still need the base a-" Gwen started but again was interrupted.

"Yes we need one. Especially since we are this far from the main one." Said Jafn as looked out toward another building that was still standing.

"But why... they are 'primitives' by your standards." Said Gwen as she paused to give out more silent orders to the 3's.

"Humans are a tier two civilization, any one below a tier one civilization is a primitive in the galactic community... Yet we have lost major battles to very clever primitives that did not want to be... subjugated to our banner." Said Jafn.

"I see. You do not wish to underestimate them." Said Gwen as her eyes lite up with surprise.

Jafn saw this and quickly faced Gwen wanting to know why she was so surprised.

"What is it?" Asked Jafn.

"I am picking up a small signal coming from the north of the city. If I had to guess they would be scouts trying to find something... Most likely try to set up a path to a new campsite." Said Gwen.

"Have all of the 3's that are close to the signals stop and focus on parts of the southern side of the city." Said Jafn as he walked in the direction of the signal.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Asked Gwen worryingly.

Jafn turned to face Gwen.

"To get a reference." He said as the blizzard picked up and Jafns cloak activated.

* * *

It was getting colder as the more Silica walked down the path towards the mountain camp site. To cold for her liking. Her tentacles were shivering on their own as they were wrapped tightly around her head to keep warm. She even had to make a stop earlier to pull some winter cloths out of her luggage. They have been walking non stop and it was the pain in her legs that have been mostly keeping her mind of of the cold.

Right now she and her escorts have passed by three camps with each one getting smaller than the last. It has taken longer than the day's walk Geo had told her, maybe it as do to her not being used to walking this much and the frequent stops she had to ask and sometimes demand of him. Right now they were nearing their second day and to her delight she herd the words that brought out hope of a long and much needed rest.

"We are almost there." Said Geo as he looked from behind to see if Silica was still keeping up. "Just need to round these hills and the campsite should be in sight." He finished.

Silica's spirit was raised and she pushed through the pain, knowing that a bed or sleeping bag would be in her grasp soon.

"What is the campsite like?" Said Silica as she shivered a bit from a gust of wind coming from her direction.

"I haven't been to it much, but most people I escort seem to always want to stay. Even to the point of illegally making houses without a permit. But with so much land available it really doesn't matter yet. I recommend you buy some land out here; if not to live then to rent." Replied Geo. "But the view from the large hill it is on is a great one. I always take my time to look around before I go back to the main base." Finished Geo as he turned back to see where he was going.

Her other escort that was traveling with them just let out a grunt of an agreement as if he had done the same thing. She always wondered why he was quiet, but it did not concern her. Only he can chose when to talk. She then remained silent the rest of the way. The pain on the feet almost unbearable, she started to pick up the pace wanting to round the corner of the hill faster.

When she rounded the hill she finally saw her new home for the next six too seven months. The camp to her surprise was almost the size of a small village. There were many tents and a large amount of buildings that looked like they were still being constructed. She even noticed a large stone wall still incomplete and only circling over half of the camp. Beyond the walls were the large forests that seem to cover the bottom of the hill.

"It's almost the size of a village" Said Silica.

"Yeah. It is planed to make this the second inland colony once the roads are set up." Said Geo.

"Second?" Asked Silica.

"The first one failed before it even began due to poor mismanagement and bad leadership in fending off the local wild life of the encampment. So they plan to focus on New Inktown more before they start with this site. Which will be soon." Replied Geo.

"We should get going" Said Keven for the first time since the they started the trip, which to Silica's embarrassment made her squeal from the surprise of his sudden comment.

"Hahaha!" Laughed Geo as he was not expecting her reaction. "Sorry about my friend Miss Bloteye, but he has a point. We should get going before it gets to dark. Those hairy creature are more common in this area." Said Geo as he still chuckled to himself. "In fact you can see one of them right now harmlessly wondering the hill" He pointed towards a far off hill.

Silica looked over and saw a wight dot on the top of a hill. It was so far she had to squint her eyes to even make it out. It looked like large animal on four legs with a long snout and tail. It was looking at them and walking up the hill at a brisk pace. Once it got up there it sat on it hind legs and started to make a noise that Silica had never herd before which worried her, causing an untold amount of replies to its initial scream. These noises also seemed to have worried Geo and his partner; he quickly grabbed Silica by her arm and tugged her along at a faster pace that soon turned in to a full on sprint.

"Run!" Said Geo as he still had Silica by the arm.

"Why!? Whats wrong!? There is only one of them!" Silica said in a panicked tone not knowing why they needed to run.

"When they howl like that it means that they have spotted prey and need backup!" Said Geo as he started to run faster.

"But don't you have those weapons!" Silica's panic tone getting a little higher as she spoke.

"Yes, but if I can recall correctly; that howl is calling other packs and not just his own! Now RUN!" Geo shouted.

Silica turned her head to the right and saw that the creature was running down the hill with more coming over it. She then forced herself to run even faster now. The pain in her legs all but gone as she was now running in a full panic. The camp was in site, but looked like it would take them ten minutes to get there even while running for their lives.

"Mountain Camp this is escort team twenty! We are being chased by a large pack of beasts. We are ten minutes out from base! Send help!" Said Geo as he turned to shooting the ground of the nearest beast that was gaining on them.

One beast slowed to a halt not wanting to get near the green looking ink on the ground while putting its snout in the dirt to avoid a putrid smell coming from said ink. The other beasts saw this and ran around the ink blob on the ground trying to avoid getting any were near the stench.

"I think I'm going to puke." Said Silica as she was still running.

"Same here, but at least it's working on slowing them down. Just keep running and will make it." Said Geo as he shot a more ink to slow the beasts down some more.

Silica was running for about three minutes now and it still looked like the camp site wasn't getting any closer. She was getting tired and slowing down and saw that her escorts were slowing down for her. She then notice that there were more beasts on their sides. It looked like they were getting closer every time Geo stopped to fire from behind.

Kevin saw this and pulled out his large gun he had yet to fire, took aim and pulled the trigger. A stream of green ink burst forth and hit one of the beast strait on is snout. What came next would have been comical if Silica was not running for her life. Said Beast started to run in circles backwards while clawing at its snout and dragging it through the dirt. It even started to make a high pitched yelp multiple times. Keven Kept on shooting and every other shot hit its mark. The beasts seemed to have brightened up after six of their pack ran away yelping, because they seemed to be keeping pace well out of Keven's range.

Geo was still running while shooting bursts of ink in the way of any beast that gets to close. He only got a direct hit on two as they too ran in random directions dragging their noses in the ground.

"Come on we are half way there!" Yelled Geo as he turned to take another shot at one of the beasts.

"I can't... Gha!... Do it!" Panted Silica as her running slowed even more.

"Yes you can!" Shouted Geo as he grabbed Silica by the arm and forcefully pulled her along with Keven doing the same with her other arm.

They kept on pulling her even though it slowed them down, though it looked like they might be able to make it if they can keep this pace. But just then as they were distracted with Silica, one of the beasts managed to get close enough and bite at Keven's leg. Which in turn tripped him and the others as he fell. This was the chance the beasts wanted as they all began to run in circles around them with some trying to take lucky bites before getting kicked in the face hard by either Keven or Geo.

Silica manage to get herself up right after Geo and Keven and saw another beast coming for her. It jumped on her knocking her off her feet with its weight on top of her. She opened her eyes and saw that the thing was going to go for her throat. She closed her eyes and herd a piercing crunch. She then felt the beasts body fall limp on top of her own. The thing was extremely heavy and just now she realized how big it was compared to her. She was to scared to open her eyes with all the noise from the fighting that Geo and Keven were putting up against these hairy beasts.

She opened her eyes and to her shock could see one of Keven's spikes sticking out of the beasts eye going deep into it head. Its red blood leaking out from the deadly wound it was given. Seeing blood made her sick, but seeing red blood even more so. Her nauseousness was getting stronger the more she looked at it, but try as she might she was pined by the beast and all she could do was look around and watch Geo and Keven fight for their lives against these monsters or continue looking at at a dead one.

She chose to look away and thats when she notice more of them stalking up from behind them. They were going to have the jump on those two. She needed to scream out and warn them. She took a deep breath; as much as she could muster while being pined and let out the loudest scream the could ever make.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Silica screamed in the highest pitch she could muster.

All of the beasts seem to hesitate from the scream. Some were looking directly at her while others seemed to have paused on what they were doing. Fortunately the one that were stalking were spotted right by Keven and shot directly in the face. But unfortunately she started to hear clicks from both of her escorts guns after a couple more shots.

"Oh oh." Was all that Geo said as he turned his gun around and held it like a bat with Keven forcefully pulling his spikes from his head and holding them in a revers grip.

All of the beast were slowing their attacks and gathering for a final one in a large circle. From her perspective there must have been thirty of them not counting the others that have run off from the bad smelling ink. Then as suddenly as the fighting had stopped, they all went in and ponced on Geo and Keven at the same time. Ignoring Silica mainly because the ones with the weapons were a bigger threat. Geo fell first with multiple Beasts trying to bite at his limbs, but were fruitless for it as he would just make that part of his body go into ink and punch or kick them back with a newly freed arm or leg. Keven on the other hand was constantly on his feet jumping and always trying to be on the sides of the vicious beasts stabbing at their rib cage.

Silica wanted to get out from under the dead beast and find a better hiding spot, but was to scared and tired to to even move. She could have turned into her squid form, but it would have taken more energy to reform into her bipedal form and she wanted to hold on to every amount of energy she had. She felt like she was getting weaker as she tried to wiggle herself out. Suddenly she heard a scream of pain and she turned to see Geo was on the ground clutching his head with blue blood oozing from his now missing tentacle.

"Gaaaaaghhh!" He screamed again as one of the beasts bit his other tentacle and began to shake its head trying to tear it off.

But before it could do any more damage a green ink blob hit the beast and Geo directly on their faces. The beast quickly let go and yelped away as did many more with similar ink stains on their faces. Silica didn't even hear the shots being fired until many of the beast went out of the range of the new comers.

Over a dozen Octlings and Inklings came charging from the direction of the camp. Some were screaming out battle cries as they charged. The beast seemed to know when they were out matched and quickly ran away, all in the same direction. The ones that had ink on them however were still running around randomly yapping about still dragging their noses in the dirt.

An Inkling male and two Octling females ran towards Silica first and with some effort managed to drag the large beast off of her. They then picked her up and started running towards the camp. Keven although limping went over to Geo, picked him up and ran to the camp as well. The rest of the camp defenders were staying behind to make sure the beasts didn't get any ideas about attacking again.

Silica weakly turned her head toward the hill the beasts were fleeing to. The one that made the chilling noise from before was on it. Starring at them as they were running. It looked calm, it looked like it was thinking something. Then it slowly turned around and made the chilling noise again and disappeared behind the hill.

Silica just turned towards the camp she was being carried to. To tired to walk, and to scared to fall asleep. She just watched as it came into view along with others of the camps residents at a large wooden gate. They went past a lot of tents until they came up to a building that looked like it was brand new. They then went inside said building and put her on a bed. Geo was brought in seconds later along with what looked like medics.

She just lied there not saying anything and starred off into the ceiling for some time. She didn't know when, but she passes out after Geo and Keven was healed and resting in some beds across from hers.

* * *

"Ei Ali! Ja go a u'ca Moatan ais. U a woomy atta. Nee maa spla go Moatan eep." Said the creature to its comrade as Jafn was watching them in the storm.

From first glance they looked almost human in their bipedal appearance. But weather they truly look it or not is undetermined do to them wearing heavily padded clothing to keep warm. He couldn't blame them, even he could feel the cold seeping in through his advanced body suit. He was just thankfull that this blizzard was obscuring their vision or he wouldn't have been able to be this close to them and record their language.

"U a woomy atta? Woh go e'ep atyal." Replied the the other creature in their gurgling language.

The more he herd them talking, the more he felt like he may never be able to speak their language without having to slurp a cup of water and trying to gargle and talk at the same time. But from their tone and actions he could make out that they were going far enough for today. They seemed to have stopped looking for land marks and went strait inside a building. The same building he was in watching them from.

"Gwen, Are you receiving the recording?" Whispered Jafn as he spoke into his armors built in mic.

"Yes. I am and I would have you know that I am still no closer to cracking their language. But I have a feeling they are talking about going back." Said Gwen in an equal quiet voice through his armors systems.

"What makes you say that?" Asked Jafn as he moved to get to the lowest floor and listen to the creatures.

"They keep referencing a mountain. Not to mention I picked up one of their mass messages from their forward base calling out on all frequencies in a panicked state." Said Gwen pausing as she thought for a moment. "I think it is a recall message." She finished.

"If it was a recall message they seem a little to laid back to be headed home in a hurry. Let me know when you have decent enough construction of their language. I may present my self to them soon." Said Jafn as he slowly crept down the old concert stairs of the building.

"I don't know about this." Said Gwen as she seem unsure of his plan.

"Neither do I, but I wont know unless I do it." Said Jafn as he tried to alleviate Gwen's worries. " I want silence from here on out. Stealth being the theme here."Jafn finished as he slowly walked around a corner and activated his shrouds cloaking systems.

"Noted. I'll let you know when I have enough of a reference to translate their language." Said Gwen as she went back to listening and watching from his armor.

Jafn could here the two beings rustling about in the other room. He peaked around the corner and saw them moving around ancient debris to make room. ' _So that's why they are lax about going home._ ' He thought as he saw their movement more clearly. They looked tired from how they were moving and plus the night was about to begin so they must be setting up a small camp to wait out the storm and night.

He then quickly moved around the corner went behind a large pile of debris that was close enough to clearly hear and see them with out them noticing him. Though his cloak did allow invisibility it was severely limited. It would just be good at long distance. Short distance not so much, they would be able to perceive a large see through blob floating about. Being this close he can now make out some of the their details as they walked about setting up their camp.

The 'tall' one if Jafn could consider such a short being that, had a masculine build. The one that had a feminine voice seemed to almost be the same height as the masculine one. They both wore heavily padded clothing with gray armor plating on their arms and legs. The rest of their clothing was the same color. Then one of the creatures spoke in its gurgling language again.

Jafn could hear them better than before, but it still sounded intelligible to him as they gurgled. The female one; at least he thought it was a female, was attempting to start a fire and succeeded with the scattered pieces of debris laying about. The male said another set of words and headed outside, maybe to gather some wood or to pee he couldn't tell. This part of the city was overgrown in many trees.

He then had an idea. ' _I could easily take one of them as they sleep_ ' he thought. ' _Maybe even both of them_ ' he added to his thought. He decided against that form of action and had another. ' _She is alone for right now... I wonder what would happen if I show myself._ ' And he truly was curious what their reactions would be if they saw him. ' _Maybe I should do it now while they are separated._ ' He then stopped his line of thought to focus on what the female was currently doing. She was getting undress.

"I... I need to record this... for science." he whispered to himself.

"I bet." Chipped in Gwen and was quickly shushed by Jafn.

Jafn was finally going to see what these things looked like. She first took off her gloves showing a surprisingly human looking hand. Then the her armored forearm protectors. She then took off her jacket and laid it next to the fire. The fires light showing off her female form which still to his surprise looked human. She then reached for her head and began to take off her helmet and face mask. To Jafn this is were the human similarities end. She had four short red tentacles running down her head, pointy elf like ears, green eyes with oddly shaped pupils, and a set of teeth that had only three sharp canines which looked similar to an internal beak.

It didn't take Jafn long to figure out what her kind evolved from. He has eaten them before back at the capital. They were in his top ten favorite foods to eat just before shrimp and right after karlaxian finch. He was now feeling conflicted on his choice of foods. His thoughts were soon interrupted by her sudden movements as she continued to pull off more clothing. She was completely naked next to the fire with its light showing off her entire body. He sort of felt like a peeping tom as he recorded what he was viewing.

She then started to organize her clothing. It looked like she was drying off her cloths as they were all laid neatly next to the fire. She then grabbed a blanket from her bag and wrapped herself in it tightly and scooted closer to said fire. Now was Jafns chance. He got out from his hiding spot ad purposefully made stepping sounds as he walked from behind her.

"Nilo? Ei woo?" Said the Octogirl as she turned around to see nothing.

Jafn was still in his cloak recording all of her words and actions from the noise he had made. It looked like he had spooked her too much as she now started to put her back next to the nearest wall while pulling a weapon from her bag in the process. Jafn needed to get it away from her, there was no need for this to get deadly. He then grabbed a rock from the ground and tossed it across the room. She quickly turned towards the noise aiming in that direction. Jafn could see the horror on her face as he ran towards her. It seemed she realized it was tricked as he ran strait towards her. He then quickly and forcefully yanked the weapon from her arms.

"Eeeeep!" Said the Octogirl as she was surprised by the action of an unseen force. "U Oni!" She shrieked.

Jafn quickly put his hands over her mouth to stop her from calling out for her partner. She started to whimper as he did so. He used his free hand to turn off his cloak. The whimpering started to turn into full blown crying. He felt bad of course, but it had to be done. He spoke through his mask in his own language.

"Calm down. I wont hurt you." He said in a calm and peaceful voice.

He knew she would not understand him, but he hoped the tone of his voice would get her to calm down. To his surprise it actually worked. Her crying slowly went back to whimpering. He slowly lifted his hands from her mouth and then slowly stepped away from her and rose to his full height. Her whimpering was also starting to slow. Jafn then pointed to himself and said his name.

"Jafn" He said and then pointed towards her.

She seemed hesitant to say anything. Probably still shocked from seeing a large creature that showed up from out of the darkness. She then started to speak.

"Ali" She said and slowly pointed to herself.

"Ali" Jafn repeated.

He then pointed towards a place near the fire and slowly sat near it. She got the gist of it and sat to were he pointed.

"Gwen have the 4's capture the other one and bring him here." Jafn said as he knew that he would get in the way if left alone. "Now then my little cephalopod. What do you call this" He said as he pointed towards her bag.

She continued to say words to every thing he pointed at. Jafn knew this would not be enough to speak properly when he was done, but maybe he will learn more later on. He continued on pointing at her stuff until he their was a muffled noise coming from the door out side. What came in made Ali panick as she started to shout out towards her companion in the arms of another large being covered in a cloak. It seemed like he was out of it, only mumbling intelligible words.

"Put him over hear, next to her and go get some wood to burn for this fire." Jafn said to his machine as it complied, putting the semi conscious being down by Ali and left to get some wood. He then turned back towards Ali. "Ali." He said getting her attention fast. "Name" He pointed to her partner and she seemed to understand him his gesture.

"Oaklin" Said Ali as she went to her companions side to see if he was okay.

Jafn just sat there and watched the interaction before interrupting them with more questions. He will continue through out the night if he had to. She seemed calmer with her friend at her side and it made it easier to get her to speak out replies faster.

"This is going to be along night." Jafn said as he looked out the window to see that the blizzard was calming down.

At least the cold would ease up soon.

* * *

 **Authors Note: I have had some fun writing this chapter, it was the second time I have ever written an action sequence. The first time was for a time travel story about Roman Legions versus a small group Modern soldiers. Boring I know, but it was for a class project. Any pleas let me know what you think of it and how I could Improve on the next one.**

 **Have a great day.**


	5. Around The Mountains

**Disclaimer: I do not own Slpatoon.**

* * *

 **Around The Mountains**

Silica opened her eyes and saw herself standing on the top of the tallest mountain she had seen in her life. She looked around not knowing where she was or how she got there and as much as the view was incredible, she kept on looking on to see if there was a way to get off the mountain. She then herd a sound from behind her and she quickly turned to see a large shrouded figure that was twice her height.

She couldn't make out any details on it, but only its action were clearly visible. It pointed to something behind her and as much as she wanted to make out the details of the large figure, her curiosity got her to turn around. At first she saw nothing, she then looked back and the figure was gone. She turned again and the figure was standing right in front of her. It said only one thing in a language she never even herd of and then pointed up.

There was a darkness that was spreading through out the light blue sky. The large objects that caused said darkness could be seen descending towards the ground. All Silica could do was watch in fear and awe as the objects descended. Their size was unparalleled to anything that could be built by any Inkling or Octarian and the amount of metal it would take to make that many was insane. She then saw multiple lights blinking from the objects. Some coming to her position and others in mass to another.

The one that was coming towards her though was coming in fast. To fast for her to even doge and within seconds it hit the ground right in front of her and then nothing. Everything went black. She tried to move her body, but she couldn't. She was panicking now. She couldn't open her eyes or move a single muscle until she realized something. She was asleep and still waking up. ' _So it was a dream and this is sleep paralysis huh?_ ' she thought to her self. ' _I don't like it_ ' She added not liking this feeling one bit.

And as soon as she realized that, she felt her arm and legs twitch bit by bit, but the first thing to move were her eyes when they suddenly opened. Once they were open she saw that the room she was in empty of people. She looked around and noticed the clock on the wall. ' _Lunch time? How long was I out?_ ' She thought as she got out of the bed. She saw her shoes right on top of a chair next to her and reached over for them to put them on.

"I hope Geo and Keven are alright." she said out loud to no one in particular.

She really did hope they were okay. If the camp defenders had come a little bit latter, some one would not have made it that evening. She shuddered to even think of such an out come. She then herd some foot steps coming from another room and getting louder as they approached.

"So you are awake then." Said an Inkling Female as she walked right on in. "Sorry about your rude welcoming from the beasts. They usually don't get like that unless it is matting season or the local food supply is low." She finished.

"Ye-yes. I'm awake and there is nothing to be sorry for. They were just hungry animals. " Said Silica as she sat down to put her shoes on.

"I'm glad to hear it. Opp! Silly me, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Professor Merlin. I am the head archaeologist and leader of this camp site. I am also the acting doctor until our original one is done healing up from the last attack." She finish with an extended arm towards Silica.

Silica finished putting on her shoe and stared back at her new boss unsure of what to say or do. She was caught off guard and not ready to meet her yet. But she swallowed her growing anxiety and quickly grabbed her hand. Since she was no longer focused on her shoe she could now see what Professor Merlin looked like.

Her tentacles were a light green with a darker shade on the tips and pulled in to a bow on the back of her head. Her eyes were a dark green and seemed to be full of happiness and optimism. She wore a white shirt with a brown vest. She also had on some brown pants and a piece of armor padding on her knees and shin with brown boots as well.

"Silica Bloteye. I am to be your new apprentice." Said Silica as she shook her bosses hand.

"Lieutenants Geovanio and Spear have told me about you. How you helped them stay alive a bit longer for the rescue team to make it. It was your scream that made the rescue team double time it to your location." Said Professor Merlin causing Silica to blush in embarrassment.

"Umm... How is Geo and Keven anyway?" Asked Silica in a curious tone.

"They are fine. Mr. Spear is just sore from tearing out his hair and using them as weapons and Mr. Geovanio's tentacle will grow back within the year." Replied Merlin as she walked near the window to open it. "Anyways enough about yesterday yes? I will be going to the lunch hall to speak with every one. Come and follow me, I bet you are hungry from all that running." she finished.

To answer Silica's question her stomach started to growl and moan in a way that she has not herd before. Silica's just nodded in agreement and followed her new boss out the door. As she walked out into the next room she notice through the windows people running about back and fourth the camp. She wondered why all this commotion. Professor Merlin saw her curious glances towards outside and decided to answer her unasked question.

"We have a scout team that was setting up a path towards a well preserved site in the mountains a few days ago." Said Merlin as she opened the door and went out side. "They were supposed to radio in this morning. We are preparing another rescue team to go get them." She finished as she pointed towards a group of Inkling and Octling warriors that were cleaning their gear and getting ready.

"But every one else looks more on edge than the rescue team." Said Silica as she saw the others walking back and forth with more kick to their steps.

"Yes. That maybe due to the beast attack. You see they only attack in mass like that when they are either very hungry or chasing out a rival predator or it is a mating season." Said Merlin as she looked towards were the palisades and the rock wall met.

Up against the walls were some dead fish all drying out in the sun.

"As you can see we are not a rival predator as we are eating a different food source they eat. They seem to love these fluffy furry mini beasts with long ears and they are quite plentiful so that scratches off them being very hungry. Plus their mating season has already passed months ago. Also that the attack on you was not the first." Finished Merlin as she took a right around a tent and headed for what looked like another complete building further ahead.

"Who was the first?" Asked Silica.

"It was my team actually, as we explored the the area in the north. I don't want to talk about it much, but the ruins up there are completely off limits due them being the main breeding ground for those beasts." Answered Merlin as her tone got a little depressed.

"Oh... Well what are going to be my duties as your apprentice?" Asked Silica as got the feeling to change the subject fast.

"Well since you are an apprentice, all you really need to do is learn what I have to teach you and just help around the camp sites construction when you are on your free." Replied Merlin as she approached the door to the building. "This is the cafeteria where most of the camp hangs out when there is nothing else to do. All we have are fish from the local stream and some of the mini longed eared beasts I mentioned." Said Merlin as she walked towards the the line for food.

Silica looked around the room as she entered and saw what must have been over half the entire camps population filling up most of the tables. She looked around some more as she waited behind Professor Merlin, then she noticed Keven and Geo sitting at a table with others that wore the same outfits as them. They both did indeed looked okay just like Merlin said they were, but seeing someone with a missing tentacle Octling or not made her flinch towards her own.

She then turned towards the line and waited for it to shorten. Once it was her turn she quickly grabbed the cooked fish and followed Merlin to the table she was headed for. It appeared to be the table were Geo and Keven were sitting at.

"Ah Professor we were just talking about you." Said Geo as he and the rest of the table looked on.

"This the new squid?" Said green tentacle inkling as he took a bite of his fish.

"Oh really? What about? And yes Gerome this is my new apprentice." Said Merlin as she sat down and patted a spot for Silica to sit by her.

"Silica Bloteye." Silica introduced he self.

"Pleasure. My name is Gerome. Over there is is Felix, Serra, and you already met Geo and Kevin." He said as he pointed to similar green tentacle Inkling and a female Octling.

"We were talking about us going out on and helping with the search for the missing scouts." Answered Geo as he gave a wave to Silica.

"You are free to volunteer your time and help us so long as you are up to it. I was told you lost a lot of blood yesterday before I treated you." Said Merlin as she looked towards Keven and the rest of them. "Same for goes for all of you." Said Merlin.

"So how are you two feeling" Asked Silica while she looked at Geo and Keven.

"I'm good" Was Keven's response and Silica's second time hearing him speak.

"It still feels like my tentacle is still there even though it is gone, but I am good too if a bit light headed." Said Geo as rubbed the bandages on his head.

"Don't worry about him. This is his third time losing a tentacle to those beasts since he's worked here." Said Serra as she patted him on the back.

"Fourth." Keven corrected her.

"Enough about my missing tentacles and Keven you know that one time doesn't count because it was reattached." Said Geo in an annoyed tone.

Silica then took a bite from her fish and continued eating it until she saw Merlin stand up.

"Is time to introduce the newbie already." Said Gerome.

"Yeah. Silica come with me. Most of the camp is already hear." She said as she looked around.

Silica didn't even notice, but the entire cafeteria seemed to be full as she to looked around. She then took one final bite from her fish and got up to follow her new mentor to what looked like a stage on the opposite side of the room. Soon though she and Professor Merlin were on it and slowly the noisy cafeteria quieted down.

"Hello everyone. I hope your mourning was good. Usually I have weekly announcements at the beginning of the week, but you all know that something weird was up since last evenings events." Said Merlin as she got some nods from the crowd. "We are currently looking into the beasts aggressive attitude change this past week and will let you know what we know soon. Also we also have a missing scout team in the southern mountains that have failed to report in. I have gathered a search team and any volunteers would be very much appreciated." She looked around the room and waited for any questions before continuing. "I am not without good news though. Last evenings events also brought us a new tentacle to our collective squad." Said Merlin as she paused for a second.

Silica notice her choice of words and saw some people putting there palm on there faces. Geo though just gave a frown at that and shook his head.

"Anyway. Pleas give a warm welcome to Silica Bloteye my new apprentice." She said as she pushed Silica towards the podium. "Go on say hi!" Said Merlin in a cheerful voice.

"Hi. I am Silisa-I mean Silica Bloteye." Said Silica as she got nervous from being put on the spot like that. "I hope that we will all get along fine." She finished as she really did not like big crowds of people looking at her.

But the other people looking at her seem to not notice or ignored her stage fright and all said hi in a kind matter.

"Don't worry Silica every new comer is introduced this way." Said Merlin as she patted her on the back.

Silica was about to reply back when some Octling tentacle stormed in to grab the Professors attention.

"Professor Merlin!" He yelled. "The scouting team that was lost has made contact on the radio, but there is a problem."

There seemed to a a collective sigh in the room at the mention that the scouting team was okay. From Geo and Keven more so than others.

"What is the problem?" Asked the professor.

"She wouldn't say unless you were there at the radio. Please hurry. It seems something is wrong." Said the exasperated tentacle.

"Silica we can finish your introduction later." Said Merlin as she jumped down from the stage and ran toward the door.

Silica not knowing what else to do decided to follow her mentor and see if she can help out in anyway. As she ran pass everyone she tried to keep up with her boss as best she could. Following her around the camp it apeard she was headed towards an entrenched tent on a small hill that had a door at its base and a large antenna on the top.

"You came along?" Asked Merlin as she just now noticing Silica was following her.

"Thought I may be able to help or learn something from this." Said Silica as she started to breath in and out heavily.

"Well it's good you came anyway. Follow me and don't touch anything." Said Merlin as she opened the door to the hill. "This is our communication hub for this area. Pleas stay close as the tunnels can get confusing for new comers." She said as she ran off into the door.

Silica managed to still keep up and was glad that they reached to where every they were going fast. She noticed only two Octlings sitting in chairs looking at the what looked to be the main radio.

"Professor! Path Finder Alia Noct is on the other end." Said the female Octling as she handed a device to Merlin.

"Ali are you there?" Asked the Professor.

The reply came slowly.

"Ye-... Yes ma'am" She said in a tired and fearful voice.

"Where are you? Are you okay? Why have you not reported in on time?" Asked Merlin as she started to sound worried.

"Oaklin and I are in the ancient city. I am okay, but Oaklin is still out cold from that... that giant thing." She said in a fearful whisper as if trying to hide her voice. "I think he's found me again." She panicked as the sound of large foot steps could be heard in the background.

"Ali please focus. Tell me what it is and how many are there?" Said Merlin, the worried tone in her voice clear.

"I don't know what he is because he wears this white mask with horns on it, but he calls himself Ya-fin. There was another one I saw briefly, but it was to shrouded by its robes to make out any details. There could be more. Professor please. Send us help. He always seems to find me when ever I seem to esc-" She was interrupted by a loud crashing sound and a low rumbling roar.

"Ali! What is it!? Are you okay!?" Asked Merlin, panic clearly in her voice.

"He found me! Stay away you demon!" She all but screeched in fear as the sound of a scuffle could be herd next and soon ended as it began with silents.

"Alia? Ali!?" The professor screamed for her to respond.

For a few moments nothing happened. Silica didn't know this Alia or Oaklin person, but from the sound of everything that happened in there she was fearful for their lives. What came next though added to her thoughts and fears and from what she could see some thing more on her mentor. It was dread and it slowly went to anger.

" **She es har.** " Said a deep gravelly voice that didn't sound like any creature she has heard from.

"Are you Ya-fin" Said Merlin in a cold voice.

" **Yesh.** " Ya-fin answered back in an unfazed tone.

"Why are you holding my people prisoner." She demanded.

" **Ta larn language. Tey are nute prissonir. Wil let goo soon.** " Ya-fin answered back in his poorly pronounced words.

"You will let them go now!" Merlin all, but screamed at the being.

" **Uf** **now ten trad.** " Was Ya-fin's reply.

"You little-" Merlin stopped her words.

Silica saw her mentor think this over.

"Professor?" Asked Silica in a worried tone.

"What do you think of this situation?" Asked Merlin ignoring Silica's worried tone.

"What do I think?" Asked Silica to her boss and all she did was nod. "I think we should see what he wants for the trade. If it would mean him letting them go." Said Silica as she looked back at the radio.

"Ya-fin." Merlin said getting his attention. "We will agree to the trade. What do you want for their return?"Asked Merlin.

" **Food.** " Was his only answer.

"Food?" Asked Merlin uncertain he said what he meant.

" **Food. Specifically fish.** " Was his reply.

"Fine. Meet us at the mountain pass and-" But Merlin was interrupted by Ya-fin.

" **No. You mett mi har en city.** " Ya-fin said as he poorly pronounced the words again.

"Listen here you mountain savage. If you don't-" But again Merlin was interrupted.

" **Mett mi en city or I eat tem.** " Ya-fin said with a more commanding tone than Merlin.

Silica was shocked at its proclamation of eating another person, but did not want to put it past him. She really didn't know what he was capable of.

"Fine... We will meet you in the ruins." Was Merlin's answer.

" **Looking forward ta it.** " Ya-fin said in a more calmer state and then the signal went dead.

"Professor I have lost the signal" Said the Female Octling as she said in a fearful tone.

"No matter. Call all scouting teams in rout to this base and have them meet up in the mountain pass. Also have all the Escort teams on base and half of the camp guards meet me at the entrance." Said Merlin as she stormed out of the room with Silica right behind her.

"Do you think he would really-" Silica started but didn't want to finish the sentence.

"Eat her? Yeah I believe he would. From their garbage dumps I've seen, their kind have been thought of as eaters of anything."

"Their kind? You know what he is?" Asked Silica.

"I don't know, but I have a hunch and I really hope it is wrong." Said Merlin as she made way for the entrance.

Once they were at the entrance Silica could hear the camp alarms going off along with orders for camp guards to meet at the entrance and go to station. There was around fifty armed guards in armor that consisted mostly of Inklings and Octling with one or two other races here or there. The came in the escort teams that were on base that numbered thirty total.

"Silica go get a fish." Said Merlin.

"A fish?" Asked Silica not sure if she heard right.

"A single fish." Said Merlin as she waited for every one to get to show up.

Once Silica got the fish she headed strait on back to Merlin and saw her commanding them into formation. She was wondering if the Professor was ever in the army before and decided to ask that question for a later date.

"Alright everyone listen up! We are dealing with a group of unknown size that have taken two fellow campers prisoner! They have demanded food for their immediate return!. If things go well we will be home by tomorrow! Do not fire on them unless fired upon!" She looked around seeing that they had questions on their faces.

Silica noticed this too and couldn't blame them. She also wondered what this thing was, it was a big world so she could not deny the possibility of other life forms on this planet.

"We will be heading once the gate is up and heading towards the ancient ruins beyond the mountain pass. We will not stop until we reach the edge of the ruins." Said Merlin as she gave a signal for the gate to pull up and its doors to open. "Now everyone move out! Silica you stay close to me." Finished Merlin.

With that they began to march in the southern direction towards the mountains.

"I hope this goes well" Silica though out loud.

* * *

Jafn had been pacing back and forth in the room he had found Ali in. She was currently balled up in a fetal position rocking back and forth mumbling words. Most likely prays of not wanting to be eaten. In truth he was not really going to eat her. He just hated waiting and thought the threat would make them hasten their speed and comply with his demands. He didn't even want them to know about him until after he had a complete understanding of the language, but because of her first escape he failed to notice she had taken her radio back and hid it for her second escape.

He was impressed with her cleverness and pissed with the outcome. He kept on wondering how she escaped though. It was the main thing on his mind. He would leave the room for a few minutes to relive himself of the Twinkies and make sure the room was locked. Once he was back it was as if she vanished. There was no place to vanish from though. All but the windows and they had bars on them. She couldn't have squeezed through them; they were not spread far enough apart for that.

He then walked towards her and picked her up much to her displeasure. He then walked out of the building and headed back to were he was currently keeping them. It was the old local police station in the city. He brought them there in their sleep with all of their stuff after the first round of questions. He then began to question them the first thing in the mourning in old interrogation rooms. He looked down to the Octling he was carrying. It was weird that they would call themselves that. It was definitely given to them by surviving humans long ago if he had to guess.

"Jafn I have picked up multiple radio frequencies all headed to the mountain pass that leads to the what used to be the main road to this city." Said Gwen over his com-system.

"I had a feeling that would happen. Prepare the 4's and have them bury themselves in the snow in a tortoise formation on both sides of the main road towards the entrance of this city. Have a hundred 3's in the saw formation and act as skirmishers." Said Jafn as he saw that the little Octling began to wiggle from his arms in her futile attempts.

"Jafn must we really fight them?" Asked Gwen.

"I never said I was going to attack them. So long as they bring the food I will uphold my part of the deal. Just keep them buried unless I am attacked." Said Jafn in a reassuring tone and quickly holding on to his captive tighter.

Jafn made it to the building and walked in to the main interrogation room he had set up. The 'Inkling' that was called Oaklin was finally up and about. He put him in this room as it had no windows or large vents in case he to was able to do the same escape plan his friend had done that annoyed him so. He then started to scream at the sight of him even more so when he saw that his friend was being squeezed in his arms.

" _Demon put my-_ " Oaklin stopped as soon as his friend interrupted him.

" _Its okay Oaklin. I'm fine._ " She said as she gave up her struggle once she was inside the room with her friend.

Jafn then closed the door from behind him and put down Ali. Oaklin went running towards her and gave her a hug then glared at Jafn.

" _What is this place and how did we get here? Who is he and why are you so cold?_ " Oaklin asked in quick succession.

" _This place is poorly made prison and we are here because of him._ " Ali pointed behind herself back at Jafin. " _He calls himself Ya-fin and won't say anything else. I am cold because I was out running in the snow trying to get help._ " She finished as she to went back to glaring at the giant before her.

Jafn just looked on trying to understand their conversation. He was a fast learner, but he still had to rely on Gwen's translations in his ear. He then made movement that startled the cephalopods and went for one of the chairs in the room. Jafn then motioned them to sit in the other opposing chairs. Both of them had yet to move. Jafn then lifted up his wrist and his holo-screen came to life witch seemed to awe the cephalopods. He then started to type in what he wanted to say and waited for Gwen to send him a translation. He then read from his masks lenses that were receiving the information.

" **I feelt like wi mett on the wrog foot... tenttacle**?" He was unsure if they had that expression, but ether way it didn't work as they still glared at him. " **Mi name es Jafn. I am a** _ **Human.**_ " Their facial expressions went to that of confusion, maybe it was because he said his species name in his own language or his poor pronunciations.

" _What is a Hyu-man_ " Ali slowly pronounced the last word as it was completely alien to her.

" **Wi are te peeple that hav built tese ancient rocks.** " Said Jafn as he was typing in more words.

"Rock why rocks? I typed ruins" Jafn said quietly to himself as he saw the direct tranlation script on his screen.

" _Sorry. I have yet to learn that word Jafn_. :(" Was Gwen's typed response on the screen too.

" _What do you want with us?_ " Asked Oaklin as he finaly went up to the table and sat in the chair.

" **Ta Observe.** " Was Jafns only response and probably the clearest he spoken in their language.

" _Why?_ " Oaklin asked again.

" **Boredom.** " Replied Jafn.

" _You're bored? That can't be the only reason._ " Said Ali as she sat into the other chair as well.

" **Yor right, boot it es one of mi main rasons.** " Said Jafn as he read more of his typed responses.

" _Will you really let us go?_ " Asked Ali as she thought about his last statements with the professor. " _Will you really eat us if she doesn't?_ " She added.

" **Yesh I wil let you goo, boot as you cant troost my woord yet yoll hav to wait for mi actions ta prove them. No I woont eat you, I tink I am somewhoot allergic ta octopuses and squid. It numbs mi throat.** " Said Jafn as that answer both relived and terrified them.

" _Why not come to us peacefully and ask to learn our language?_ " Asked Oaklin in a curious tone.

" **Yor en mi domain and had weepons. I did no assume you were peeceful.** " Said Jafn.

That was a small lie. He new they were just path finding scouts, he just acted on his old ingrained war like training to get information. Even though he had a peaceful plan set up he just reverted back to his first plan. Overcoming his military indoctrination would take years if not decades and he hoped this type of outcome would occur less frequently in said years to come. That or it was an inpatient person.

' _Definitely the first one...most likely._ ' Jafn thought as he stared off into the one way window.

" _Those are stunning 'weepons'_ " Oaklin mocked. " _They are meant to drive of a certain type of animal we've been dealing with for the past couple of years._ " Finished Oaklin as he looked at Ali, seeing she had her hand on her stomach and possibly another question to ask.

" _Do you have anything to eat?_ " Said Ali as her stomach growled.

Jafn looked at her for a moment before reaching into his shroud and pulled out a sack from within. He plopped it down on the table and started to dig through until the sound of wrappers could be heard. He brought them up from out of the sac and handed a pair of his Twinkies to his 'guests'.

" _What are these?_ " Asked Oaklin as he opened the wrapping.

" **Tweve thoosand yar old** Twinkie." Was Jafns response as he saw them quickly spit the things out as soon as they bit into them. " **Before you ask whoot it es it was a snack tat can last a vury long tim en storage. Tey are all I hav and will be yor only food till yor peeple coom for you.** " Finished Jafn as he stood up to his full height and turned to walk out of the room.

" _Wait were are you going? You cant just leave us in this room until they get here! That would take days!_ " Exclaimed Ali as she threw the unfinished twinkie at his head.

It just bounced off, but it did what she intended it to do as he stopped midway out the door. He typed in another response on his wrist mounted holo-screen.

" **You wil no be har for too loong. From te speed tat tey are marching at tey will be har en te morning.** " Said Jafn as he turned around again and closed the door behind him.

" _How do you know how fast they are marching you giant bastard!_ " Was the last thing Jafn heard from her as he turned off the one way audio when he passed the one way mirror.

"Are you sure you we should leave them in there?" What if she could get out like last time?" Said Gwen as she looked through the one way glass at the cephalopods.

"No I am not sure, but keep the X's on this door and make sure they stay in the room until the exchange; just in case. I'll be meditate for now in the next room over. Let me know when the other squids or show up near the city." Said Jafn as he walked away toward the next room.

"But fish?" Was Gwen's question as she still looked at the Octling and Inkling.

"I can dig up what ever resource I want from this city, but these Twinkies are starting to make me feel sick. I need some real food or I will go mad from those yellow sponges." Said Jafn as he went through the door and sat down in the middle of the room.

Once he was in the lotus position he went into a deep trance like state. He then thought of what he would do after the exchanges. If they would still hold a grudge after this then all he would have to do is wait for a hundred years or so and try again. The main problem there is waiting... He hated to wait for too long.

"I hate the waiting game..." He then frowned. "I guess I am an inpatient person." Was his last words for the day as he went back into his deep trance.

* * *

 **Authors note: Sorry about the few weeks of inactivity, but when you have no internet you tend not to be able to upload. Got it back back this morning though. They had to shut it off in my area for road repairs.**

 **Another thing is that I really wanted to take my time with this so there would be fewer spelling errors. Plus I didn't like how the first draft came out and had to completely restart it.**

 **I may use this new method of making multiple drafts for the same chapters on other updates so if I am a week late again you all will know why.**

 **And until then have a great week... or weeks.**


	6. Land Of The Giant

**Disclaimer: I do not own Splatoon.**

* * *

 **Land Of The Giant**

This was Silica's first time seeing this much snow cover so much ground. It was a beautiful site to see after the seeing nothing but a blue oceans for a week four days ago. Now if only her boss would slow this... this army she was marching towards what she could only assume was Ya-fin's home. She wondered what kind of sea creature he was to be living this far away from everyone. But from something had been bugging her since last afternoons events.

Her boss mentioned that Ya-fin's threat at eat this Alia girl should be taken seriously. She said something about dug up garbage dumps having many animal remains. Even hers, Geo's, and Kevin's kind. Now if she wasn't an apprentice to an archaeologist she would have felt the need to ask her boss, who's trash dumps. But considering that the camp was build by a small site... it must have been one of the Ancients trash dumps from the long gone civilization. Does that mean that her mentor thinks that this Ya-fin character is a survivor?

She would need to ask her mentor after she was getting dress. She was currently in the women's tent that was set up for a change into winter clothing. Apparently one of the scouting teams had an extra winter jacket and in her second favorite color. It was a thick purple jacket with light purple decals on were the seems would be. She finally got it on along with her winter pants she had to run back to the camp and get last night. It was a long brown cotton pants that helped to keep her warm.

Once she was dressed she stepped outside and saw the that every one was filling up to move out. They had only rested for four hours and still there was reinforcement catching up every twenty minutes. When her mentor called in every scouting team she must have meant it cause their initial force has doubled from a hundred that left the camp to over two hundred. She then sported her boss in the center of the formation and headed strait for her.

"Good mourning Silica." Said Merlin as she looked of into the distance of the mountain path.

"Good mourning Professor." Said Silica as she took to her side.

"Have a good rest?" She asked with concern.

"No not really, but I am still good to go." Replied Silica as she herd a horn blow which signaled for the vanguard to go twenty minutes ahead them.

"Well if we can scare this coward into giving us back our comrades soon, then we will be back at the camp sleeping in warm beds." Merlin said with anoyance as she thought of Ya-fin.

"Why not just give him a large amount of fish and be done with it?" Asked Silica as she wanted to know why there was a need for a large force.

"What would happens if he ran out of food later? Would he come to us and ask for a job later on down the road? No he would see that we are weak and give in to easily to demands and may try the same stunt next time. Once threat is to many." Said Merlin, the strength radiating from her voice.

Her little speech even got nearby camp guards to yell in affirmation to what she had said.

"I see... but is this Ya-fin guy... could he really be-"

"One of them? I really don't know. What I do know is that who every he is, he will submit to us or it will be his end." She said in a darker tone.

"Wait you mean... You are not going to kill him are you?" Said Silica with a worried tone.

She doesn't want anyone to die. Even someone who threatened her mentors employee. This seemed a little to drastic. Was she taking this threat a little too personal. For all she knew this Ya-fin guy just wants the fish brought to him faster than to eat someone. He did say he wanted to learn the language, he would have to be a cruel individual to do something like that.

"If it comes to that, but my second has proposed a capture plan." Merlin answered coldly.

"Are you not taking this threat a little too seriously? I mean what if it is a bluff. He did say he wanted to learn our language. Why would he cause such an incident, unless he had plans for a more prolong dialogue in the future." Silica reasoned as she got a few of the camp guards to nod in agreement that over heard her.

"You're right. I maybe taking this threat a little to seriously, but Alia... she is some one special to me." Merlin said in a saddened tone. "Would you not take it seriously if your special someone was in the same predicament." Merlin said as a tear fell from her eye.

Silica had no idea her boss was... that way, but it doesn't matter. She had a valid point. Lovers or not, this Alia and Oaklin persons had families.

"Don't worry Professor, I was a good at Turf Wars so I'll help to the best of my abilities to get your lover back." She said in a firm voice which caused he mentor cover her mouth.

"Shush! Not everyone needs to know." She said quietly.

"Sorry... I was raised in an accepting neighborhood. Not used to be secretive about this stuff." Said Silica as she blushed a bit.

"No worries. So you can handle yourself?" She asked as she looked at Kevin behind them and as if a silent command was spoken he nodded his head and went somewhere else.

"Yes. I was good with the blaster." She said as she pretended to hold it and shoot invisible enemies.

"Well that is good to know. You can be on my team after this." Said Merlin as the sound of the second horn came to life. "Everyone Move Out!" She shouted as everyone marched in unison.

"I didn't know the camp site had a turf arena." Said Silica as she tried to keep pace with everyone.

"It doesn't. We have our battles back at port on our holiday weekends." Said Gerome who was behind Geo.

"Oh" Said Silica in a sadden tone. "Oh!" She said again as Kevin caught up and held a large blaster in front of her. "Thank you!" She said with delight.

"Glad you like it. But make sure you don't hit any of us with that. The smell that thing makes can K.O. Anyone plus it has a special type of poison." Merlin said as she turned to look ahead of herself.

"I said I was a good shot!" Said Silica as she still was looking over the weapon. "I just hope I don't have to use it." She added as they all marched down the path the vanguard made from earlier made.

* * *

It was a clear and cold afternoon for for Jafn as Gwen and the 3 that knocked out Oaklin where standing to his right and his prisoners were to his left. He made sure to add extra clothing onto the 3 so it would not look like a machine at first glance, but a heavily armored human. Though if he would have to guess it would be pointless anyway as his height would be enough distraction than anything else as he was still three feet taller than Gwen and the 3.

He looked over his prisoners for the moment. It would seem that they have adapted to the cold fairly quickly as they seemed to have stopped shivering hours ago. It must be their copper rich blood, if he can recall correctly it would allow them to live in even colder climates than humans and be able able to bleed blue. He of course would not want to test the second one but had a feeling he will see it happen one day, if not today then somewhere along the line in his long life. A thought soon a curd to him as he continued to stare at his prisoners.

Ali seemed to have bent down and started to draw in the snow with a stick she found lying around. Jafn being curious, bent down to observe what would come out of her snow art. She took her time to make three figures, the largest one looking like it was dead with the smaller ones dancing on top of it. She even drew stink lines coming off of the large one.

" **Ya moost be an artust bock home**." Said Jafn, the mocking tone clear in his voice.

Ali just paused what she was doing and looked over her shoulder in disgust and went back to her drawing. After awhile of more insulting doodles, she stood up and turned towards Jafn. She glared at him as he too stood back up.

" _What will you do once this is over.?_ " She asked as she continued her glare.

Jafn stared back not giving her glare any credence, but her words seemed to have made him think over his next course of actions. He began to type again into his holo-screen.

" **I wil clem tis land as mi own, trad mi knowleg for mor recoursis, maybi do mor traveleng**." Jafn said as he tried to pronouns the weird word in his mouth.

" _What do you mean trade_?" She said as her face went from glaring into confusion. " _What do you have that our people would just ignore this indecent_?" She said as she threw the stick at his head.

Jafn quickly grabbed the stick before it hit and crushed it. He then gestured to the holo-screen on his wrist. She eyed it for a moment before choosing to speak again.

" _If that is all you have then y_ -" She was interrupted when the holo-screen started to show pictures of many types of technology, from flying cars to machine laborers to tanks. " _Well it wont be as soon or easy as you'd hope it to be_." She pouted as bent down and started to draw again in the snow with her fingers this time.

" **It woold bi easy so log tere es leaders tat hav militant minds**." Said Jafn as he showed an old video of marching humans in uniform saluting a military dictator as they passed. " **Ya do hav one do ya not**?" He asked as he stood to his full height.

She just looked away towards Oaklin. Probably hoping for some help in this conversation. He only did a hand signaling to be quiet.

" **No mater**." Said Jafn as he turned towards the city. " **I ned no new resourses for a log while**." He said as he pointed towards a building in said city that was a mile away.

They both looked to see a large building, they could hear the noise from here as its metal beams screeched and groaned. Their eyes then widened when it imploded on itself and came crashing down. To Jafn's confusion Ali seemed to be visibly upset by what just happened. As if he destroyed something valuable. In a way it must have been as it was the oldest and most well preserved structure here in this site, but it needed to go. He needed its resources for his main base back at Mt. Everest.

" **Why are ya disturbed by tis**?" He asked as he watched the smoke and dust go up into the air.

" _I... I live with an archaeologist._ " She said in disbelief.

" **I see**." He said as he turned towards Gwen as she tapped his back to get his attention. "Yes Gwen?" He said as he looked to were she was pointing..

"The first group of the camp site is just beyond that hill." She said as she looked back at him.

"First group?" Asked Jafn.

"Yes. They appeared to have split into three groups. A second group will be here in twenty minutes." Gwen replied.

He looked on towards the hill and pressed a button on his mask. He could see them walking about the hill moving snow and dirt out of the way. He then saw an Inkling with binoculars looking at him. They stared at each other for a moment before Jafn raised his and and waved. The Inkiling seemed surprised and quickly started to talked into his radio. Jafn then just zoomed out and returned his attention to Gwen.

"It is most likely a scouting unit or Vanguard. Pay them no mind. We are going to wait for them to come to us remember." He said as he looked towards his prisoners again.

"As you say Jafn." Said Gwen as she looked toward the prisoners too.

Once she moved her head Jafn caught Oaklin quickly turning his head to avoid eye contact with her and blushing. Jafn looked on in disbelief. Was his prisoner infatuated with Gwen? He just turned and shook his head as he chuckled.

"What is funny Jafn?" Asked Gwen as she was oblivious to their male prisoners actions.

"Nothing... I'll tell you latter." He said as he chose to sit down in the snow and meditate.

His prisoners just looked at him as if he was crazy, but decided to just ignore their captors actions and wait for their rescue.

* * *

It had taken a twelve hours since they had left the mountain pass and now here they were in a make shift camp surrounded by dirt and wooden walls that were hastily built. Silica recalled passing threw the 'gate' of the hill. It was just two large stone rocks with the word 'gate' painted on it. But she is glad she is here now and resting. They arrived thirty minutes ago and word has spread that the third group is almost here.

Right now though she was sitting on the top of the hill looking over the city in the distance. It was strange to see such an intact city. Not to mention its size. But something was off about it. There was a large dust cloud near the center as if one fell recently. Did one fall? It would explain that weird thunderous boom she and everyone heard an hour ago. She sat there on that hill resting until she was called by her mentor.

"Silica!" Yelled Merlin from the bottom of the hill.

Silica sat up and looked down said hill. She saw her boss wave her to come over. It must be time for the plan to start. She got up to stretch before she went down and it was at that moment she sensed it. She does not know what this feeling is, but she felt as if she had sensed a presences watching her. She looked in every direction of the camp to see who was being a creep. When she could not find any one she then slowly turned towards the city. She saw a few dots on the horizon, but was that thing watching her specific?

"Silica! Hurry up!" Her boss yelled again.

"C-coming!" She replied back as she looked towards the city. "What are you?" She asked herself.

Once she was down the hill she saw her boss waiting with Geo and his squad along with fifteen other camp guards. This would be the initial team to make the deal while the rest of the guards wait in the fort as a precaution. She then grabbed her cannon she got from earlier and put it on her back. She got in formation to the right of her mentor and with that they left the fort.

"So what else do you know of these ancient ones?" Asked Felix who was standing behind Gerome.

"From sources that aren't in the public domain, nothing much. But from myths told by the elders...quite a lot." She said as she plowed her way threw the deep snow.

"Like?" Asked Silica as she wanted to know.

"Most of them should be a bit taller than an Urchin." She said as Geo nudge Kevin.

"Hear that buddy? You are not going to be the tallest in this new land." Said Geo as Kevin just nudged him back. "what else?" He added.

"They were responsible for the great floods, our language, and even our culture." She said in a tone that seemed sad.

"I am sensing a 'but'." Said Gerome.

"They would be known to eat anything... Squid, Octopuses, Urchins... Anything." She said in worry.

"Don't worry Professor. I am sure they are both fine." Said Silica as she wanted to lift her hopes up. "We are almost there anyways, I can see four... Five people standing in the snowy fields." She add as the figures where standing there waiting.

"I see them too." Added Felix.

"Alright everyone, lower your weapons and keep calm. Let me do the talking." Said Merlin as she went to the front of the formation.

It took at least five minutes to walk there, but once there they did not expect to see an Ancient look so... tall. Compared to the Octarian and Inkling who were standing next to what must be a female Ancient, this male Ancient must be the tallest being Silica has ever seen. He was easily almost twice her size.

"Yep. Kevin you are defiantly not the tallest." Said Geo as he stared up into this Ya-fin guy.

He was wearing a large shrouded cloak with its hood up over his head. His face was covered up by a white mask with red visors blocking his eyes. Silica could not see the rest of the body except for the feet that protruded from the shroud below. They were armored in some type of white silvery metal with a light blue decal in a strange pattern on the side.

There was a smaller female standing next to him that looked to be a in a similar shroud and the another shrouded individual standing to her right. They just stood there with their hoods over their head so they could not be seen. To his left were the Oaklin and Ali.

"Alia! Are you okay!" Said Merlin shouted over in worry and relief of seeing her lover.

"Yes I am fine! Pleas just give him the fish so we can leave this place!" Ali shouted back in the same tone.

"Hey what about me!" Said Oaklin in a fake hurt tone.

"I haven't forgot about you!" She replied back, then turned towards the giant. "Ya-fin! I have your fish! Now release them!" Merlin said in an angry tone as she showed Ya-fin a bag.

He just looked over the entire group as if he was assessing their abilities be for replying. But what he did next made everyone go on edge. He lifted up his arm from within his shroud. Then out poped a floating orange colored screen that was see through. He then started to read some word to him self and then type on the screen. He then read aloud what he typed.

" **Vury wel**." He replied in as he poorly pronounced the words.

He then grabbed Oaklin by the arm and tugged him forward as if he weighed like nothing. He then pointed towards the group. Ali went forawarrd as well but was stopped by Ya-fin's hand quickly grabbing her.

"Let her go!" Merlin shouted.

" **She wil be let goo as soon as I hav wat I want**." He said after he typed in some more words.

Not saying anything Merlin looked towards Silica and shook her head. Silica grabbed a bag and walked up towards Ya-fin. She was buckling at the knees from his unfaltering stare. She raised the bag towards him waiting for him to take it. Once she felt the bag leave her hands she quickly grabbed Ali and pulled her towards the group before Ya-fin could open up the bag.

"Everyone let us leave now." Said Merlin in a hurried and hushed tone. "I am glad to see you both alright." She added as she grabbed Ali's hand and pulled her towards the direction of the hill-fort.

" **Wait rit tar**. **Do ya rely tink I wod be accepting of tis**?" Asked Ya-fin as he threw the bag with a fish in it towards them.

"You weren't really specific about the amount." Replied Merlin as she and every one else raised their weapons at him. "We will be leaving now. So just stay- What are you doing?" She asked in confusion at Ya-fins actions.

He said nothing as he stuck his arm out towards them. Silica did not know what or how it happen, but suddenly out of nowhere Ali was pulled by an unknown force and into Ya-fins hands. He held her by her tentacles as she screamed in fear from suddenly flying fifteen meters threw the air. She then went limp as he waved his other hand over her face.

"YA-FIN!" Merlin yelled his name with hatred clear in her voice. "Let her go!" She demanded.

" **Ten I shell be mor specific**." He said as turned towards his companions and told them something in his native language.

They then backed off and went back towards the city. 'I _s he insane_?' Silica thought to her self. He just took their comrade with some kind of ability and now he has ordered his only backup to leave him be... against twenty people. Of course he had size on his side, but they had even more numbers five minutes out.

"You let her go now you giant bastard!" Merlin shouted in an authoritative tone that would make any one obey.

" **I am a man of mi word, boot wen I am cheted I chet bock. Bring mi a hundred times tis amount or no del**." Said Ya-fin in what appeared to overshadowed professor Merlin's authoritative tone.

"Silica fire the canon!" Merlin shouted.

"But what about Al-" Silica tried to protest, but was quickly cut off.

"She will be fine. Stinky, but fine. Shoot this damn bastard now!" She said causing Silica to pull her canon from her back and aiming it at Ya-fin.

" **Ya wod not harm yor friend**." Said Ya-fin as he used her unconscious form as a shield.

It would have been comical sight for Silica, seeing a giant using a living shield that barley covered him. But she focused and held her weapon steady enough, her finger on the trigger. She then held her breath as she new how awful the smell was going to be. She then fired the Ink which caused her to be blown back a bit from the recoil.

She was expecting to hit them both, but Silica saw something that she did not expect of Ya-fin. Before the ink blob made contact, Ya-fin threw Ali out of the way before making an attempt to get out of the way himself. He was to late as it struck him in the head and knocked him down to the ground hard. His mask came off from the impact and flew into another direction. Geo and Kevin ran towards Ali and dragged her back to the group.

"Everyone we are leaving now! Vermilion! Get the rope!" Demanded Merlin as she approached Silica. "Nice shot, but lets tie him up quickly." She said as she walked towards him.

Every one paused though as they heard a bellowing laughter. It was deep and it frightened Silica. What came next was a large being standing in front of Merlin. She quickly looked up in despair as Ya-fin ignited a spear of light from his hands and used it like a bat on her head. It struck her and sent her flying past the group by forty meters. He then put his sights toward Silica, but before he could do anything he started to gag. The Ink must be effecting him now.

' _Here's our chance_.' She thought as she walked up to Ya-fin. He looked at her and she at him. She could finally see his face. It was shockingly similar to an inkling except for his lack of tentacles, pointy ears, and slits in the eyes. What he had that she didn't was a long patch of black fur that went down to his lower back and strange markings on his face that gave off a light blue color. She then shook her head and stared directly into his eyes, pointing the canon directly in his face.

"Ouy t'ndluow erad." He said directly to her in his language as he went to his knees, fighting of the drug and stench in the ink.

* * *

She fired. That little tiny thing fired that large goo gun at him. It apparently had an active nerve agent in it as he could not move from the second shot. He was pissed. But what really pissed him off was the putrid smell that came with it. He was cursing his genetically enhanced nose right now along with the inkling who shot him. He was going to tear her... no he need not be violent. He was technically in the wrong here. But they did deserve something coming to them for breaking their word. He was down on the ground there for about ten minutes thinking of his revenge until Gwen threw the fish in front of him.

"You know, they are still at their hill-fort. From the chatter I am receiving they have lost contact with their main base and are in a hurry to get back." She said as she sat down right next to him, wiping the goo from his face. "I am glad I can turn off my nose, cause when I walked right up to you I wanted to puke." She said as she got what was left.

"I envy that." Jafn Said honestly. "But" He paused as he forced every ounce of his strength to stand back up. "I will not let this treachery slide." He said as he wobbled to keep his balance.

"Plan B?" Asked Gwen as she prepared the drones in hiding to come out.

"No!" Said Jafn the anger in his tone prevalent. "Plan C! Rrrrraaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!" He yelled as he charged forward igniting his roter-spear.

Gwen just stood there watching him charge the hill-fort by himself. She wondered of his sanity in doing so, but he was banished by the very emperor he tried to kill. It means he either wants him to suffer the insanity of isolation or he still wants him alive for his value as a tactician later in the future. She had yet to see him make any sound judgments yet, but she will follow him as he is the only human around to serve.

"As you say Jafn!" She yelled back an charged with him, commanding the drones hidden though out the snowy valley to commence with the new plan.

"Charge!" Yelled Jafn as he aimed his spear at the fort and out shot a beam of light that brought down the hastily built wooden walls.

"You told me that was a tool" She said as she ran along side him.

"It is. That wall hill was broken. I fixed it." He said as he jumped to the left avoiding the multiple blobs of goo.

"What about that thing with Ali. You pulled her as if it were-" She started, but was cut of from a blob of goo hitting her directly in the mask.

"It was a telekinetic ability. I am self taught as we don't have masters yet. It is a fairly new thing popping up in our species." Jafn said as used his arm to block more of that goop. "Damn this species and their bio weapons. I hate it when other species use bio weapons." Jafn added as he ran behind a pile of snow.

Just then all of his machines rose from the snowy ground and marched in unison towards the hill-fort.

"Now they pop up." Jafn said as he shot another light beam out at another wall. "There we go. Nothing says home when you have two front doors." He said while dodging the goop. "Ahh this stink is making it hard for me to focus." He added as he realized he wont be doing his telekinesis for a bit.

"Jafn. Should I send in the 3's first to lighten them up and then the 4's?" Gwen said as she knelt by him.

"No have the fours use their shields to cover the threes on the approach. Then charge in all at once on the holes I made." Said Jafn as he pointed toward the newly made entrances.

"As you command Jafn!" Gwen said as she formed the drones ito the formation that Jafn said to.

Jafn just stood up, confidant that he will not be hit as the drones seemed to be taking on all the hits. He then started to walk a calming pace. Thinking on what to do after this. He continued and watched his drones slowly but steadily push their way into the hill fort. He could hear the cries and yells of the cephalopods from were he was as they were being shocked and hit from the electric rods his drones carried. It then started to lightly snow as Jafn made it to the wooden structure.

(Line BRAKEN)

Silica was using a shovel to smash one of the robots heads in as Geo held it down. She was crying as she did so, because she did not expect to be fighting an army of robots out of nowhere. She looked around the camp as every one was fighting. The Hill-fort had the numbers, but their weapons were useless against these machines. They just walk forward and pushed on through the holes made by that weird death ray Ya-fin fired. She wondered why he didn't continue his assault and kill them from afar. Maybe he wanted to do that up close-

"Gaaahhh" Yelled Silica as she felt a hard strike against the back of her head.

She went fling until she hit a crate that stopped her from going any further. She rolled onto her back trying to look at her attacker and what she saw made her piss herself. It was Ya-fin and he was slowly walking toward her with an unconscious Geo in his left hand. He then stood in front of her ready to swing until she saw a spike embed itself in Ya-fin's left hand making him let go of Geo. They both turned to see Kevin jumping from a higher position on the hill towards Ya-fin.

Ya-fin just side stepped out of the way and grabbed Kevin by his foot. Kevin with wide eye knew what this meant as Ya-fin swung him hard into the ground on both of his side and tossed him into the air. But before he could get to high he used his Light spear like a bat and knocked him into the ground hard. Kevin was either dead or unconscious, but it soon wont matter as Ya-fin turned his sight towards her. He was swung at her and right before it could hit she turned into her squid form and flopped into the snow.

If she would have peaked her head out she would have seen a some what baffled look on Ya-fin's face as he rubbed his eyes trying to understand what happened. But instead she took her chances at frostbite and dug through the snow in her squid form trying to avoid random foot steps from both sides squishing her. She then jumped up from the snow to see where she was going. She was near the medic station as she saw Merlin being escorted by her personnel camp guards. She then formed back into her bipedal form and ran toward her.

"Professor! We need to-Gahhhhhh" She started, but felt something hit the back her head.

She fell down and couldn't move. The last thing she saw was that giant move at an incredible speed for someone at that size, knocking and tossing everyone around like they were nothing. Then everything faded to black when she heard a the horn for a retreat.

* * *

Silica was cold when she woke up on what felt like a cotton bed. She tried to open her eyes but she couldn't. All she could do was listen to the cries for help and pain. She tried to move, but like her eyes she was bound.

"Silica! You're up? Finally!" Said a familiar voice.

"Who's there?" She asked as she tried to move.

"Relax it's me Felix." He said in a calming tone.

"Where are we?" She asked as she could hear people yelling and cursing at what sounded to be large foot steps.

"That giant captured us and brought us all to an underground prison. He seemed to have put us in rooms with no vents though. Must have known we might have used them to escape." He said as he approached her. "Here let me get this off of you." He added as he tore of the rope and bag from her head.

"How many escaped?" She asked hopping that they would bring rescue.

"None." was his only answer as he sat next to what looked to be an unconscious Merlin and Ali holding onto each other.

Silica just lied there looking around the room trying not to move as her head ached from the blow she received. She could hear that pounding of foot steps go louder and louder until the door opened to revile that small ancient lady that fought with Ya-fin. She stared around the room as if looking for some one. She then spoke.

"Jafn has demanded your leaders presence." She said in what sounded like perfect Inkanese.

"For what?" Growled out Felix.

"To negotiate your release." She said as she pointed towards Merlin. "It appears she is still out. Whom is your second in command?" She asked as she looked around.

"That would be me I guess." Said an Inkling who was in the back of the room. "But I am unable to move. Or think clearly." He added.

Silica remembered seeing him at her bosses side every now and then, but had yet to meet him proper. He did look dazed though. He must have been hit hard in the head if he was unable to stand.

"I'll do it." Silica volunteered to negotiate. "I was her apprentice." She said as she hoped it would stand for something.

"Silica what are you doing?" Felix said with horror in his voice.

"I never fully agreed to her plan. Hell I even tried to convince her that maybe we should have done what he said. But in the end if she will still not chose diplomacy then I will." She said firmly towards Felix. "Tell her if she disproves she can find another apprentice." She added before limping towards the female.

"She might if we wait-" Felix started but was cut of by the Ancient lady.

"Jafn want to discus terms now." She added as she offered a hand towards Silica. "You need help." It was a statement and not a question.

Silica reluctantly accepted the arm and took hold of it.

"Just be careful" He said in worry.

"I will" She responded before the door closed behind her.

"So is he still mad that I shot him?" She asked wondering if this talk would go over well.

"No... Just stinky." Was her reply.

"Why is he bigger than you. Is he some sort of alpha male?" She asked curiously.

"He will answer all your questions." The ancient lady said ending the conversation.

"Can I get you name at least?" Silica asked wondering why she was acting like a clam.

"Gwen." She said as she looked towards her.

"Nice name. Silica is my name. Silica Bloteye." She said as she could feel the stinging in her head lighten up.

"Likewise... We're here." She said as the rounded a corner on to a door with strange writings.

She then opened the door to revile Ya-fin looking at his holographic display watching something that made him laugh. Yet his laughter was light and warm for such a ferocious and giant man. He then looked her over and his face went into an expressionless state. He then wave Gwen to leave the room and close the door.

" **Sit**." He demanded.

She did so and watched him switch his display from the show he was watching to a typing program.

"I have a question."

" **Ask it**." He said as he pulled out the single fish from before and started to munch on it.

"Okay... What are you? Where is the rest of your kind?-" She stopped speaking when Ya-fin raised his hand in a stopping gesture.

" **I am a Human**. **Mi nam es** _ **Jafn**_. **I am ta only** _ **Human**_ **on tis plenet**." He started but saw she had another question.

"What about Gwen?" She asked.

" **She es an** _ **Andriod**_." He said which confused her. " **Robot**." He clarified.

"Oh... Does this mean you are the last of your kind?" She said in a sadden tone.

" **I am last on plenet not Galaxy**." His words made her eyes widen. " **I am har as punishment**. **I am to liv out mi days in isolation from mi kind**." He said as he looked at a mirror in the room.

"I have seen your kinds remains in our museums. Why are you so... Big." She asked.

" **Mi clan trains on a low gravity plenet wen wi are young**." He said as if remembering good and bad times.

"Why not return to this planet? Was it your original one or a failed colony?" She asked as he looked her up and down as if trying to remember something.

" **It was Home plenet**. **Wi wil return en a thousand yars or so**." He then leaned over ready to ask his own questions. " **Wat was tat mophin ting ya did back tere**." He asked.

"We... Octlings and Inklings... Our original forms are squids and octopuses. We can manipulate our bodily fluids to take a more bipedal form." She said while morphing her hand into a tentacle. "Can we please get on with this discussion. I want to go home." She said as she remembered everyone else in their prison cells.

" **Vury wel**. **Wat wil ya ofer for tier freedem**?" He asked curiously.

"You can have me." She said but she slowly started to realized that it came out wrong.

" **I may be alone, boot I am not tat alone**." He instantly replied

She realized how that could have sounded to someone just learning the language. She blushed at the quick embarrassing image of them both...

"That was not what I meant!" She said while shaking her head of that horrid thought. "What I meant was just have me as a prisoner." She said as her orange tentacles turned a shade of pink.

" **I hav no ned for anoter long term prisoner**. **Tey tend ta escape**." He said as he looked her in the eyes.

"Fine then what do you want?" She asked not knowing if she could give him what he-

" **A boat**." He said in a plane and simple tone.

"A boat?" Silica asked not sure if she heard correctly.

" **Yes**. **A boat**." He repeated.

"I think that is manageable... Anything else?" She hoped it was as reasonable as the first one.

" **Teach mi yor culture**."

"Fine... I can do both of those, but you will need to wait on the boat thing." She said as she saw his hand put in front of her. "You only want simple things don't you?" She asked as she took his hand.

" **I want wat I ned**." He replied. " **I also want fish**." He added.

"Like I said... simple." She said as they both stood up.

She was about to walk until she fell over from a slight dizziness in her head. She braced for the impact with the ground... but it never came. She then saw an arm around her chest and saw it was Ya-fin.

" **Be careful**... **I hit ya hard, remember**?"

"Yeah not sure whether I should punch you or thank you." She said in a tired voice.

He then lifted her up of the ground and began to carry her.

"Hey I am fine no need to be-" But she felt the dizziness happen again.

" **I wont catch ya next tim**." He said as he was ready to put her down.

"Fine... but only to my cell." She said as they both left the room.

She then smelled something.

"You stink." She added as she remembered she hit him with that Ink canon.

* * *

"Gwen" Jafn called for her as he walked pass where the cell block was.

"Yes Jafn" She replied as she caught up to him.

"Have the 3's take all the wounded from the cell blocks to the infirmary. They are no longer prisoners." He said to her in a calm tone.

"I know I was listening in. But she is right. You want simple things. Is there anything you want that is not-

"I want a spaceship, so I can use it to throw the emperor into a black hole. Is that less simple?" He said as he looked at the squid in is arms. "I forgot to ask her her name." He said as that is the most common thing to do.

"Her name is Silica Bloteye." She informed Jafn as he looked on ahead.

"Well I hope her people will listen willingly to her." Said Jafn as he went into the infirmary and placed her on the old rusted gurney. "Have some 3's scavenge their camp for supplies. They may need 'em." He finished as saw Silica fall back into sleep.

"Jafn." Said Gwen getting his attention.

"Yeah." He answered.

"What was so funny earlier?" She asked as she remembered him laughing before the meeting.

"That Inkling... Oaklin seems to be taking peaks at you when you're not looking." He answered.

"I'm not his type." She said as she went out the door then paused. "And you need a bath. You stink."

Jafn said nothing as he smelled his armor and flinched in disgust.

"Yeah... Have some 3's find me a working tub in the city." He then looked at the door as some injured Inklings were brought in. "Put them over there." He said before he left the room. "Today was a long day." He said as he walked down the hall wishing he had Gwen's ability to turn off his nose.

* * *

 **Authors Note: I may be late again, but I have a valid reason. I have no internet until next week and am using a friends hotspot to upload this chapter.**

 **But do not assume I have been inactive all this time. The next chapter will be out this weekend.**

 **I used this internetless time to write ahead of my schedule** **. I even rewrote this specific chapter twice.**

 **Until next time, have a great day.**


	7. Lessons and Insight

**Disclaimer: I do not own Splatoon.**

* * *

 **Lessons and Insight**

Jafn was currently organizing all of the critically injured into an old building that was once the hospital for this city. He had never thought he would be using this structure as he would tear them down for their resources. Now he was using them to heal the cephalopods he may have hit a little to hard a few days ago. He felt some what bad, but he could not help it as he was in a trance like state as he fought them at that poorly made base.

He had the ICU's rebuilt right after he dropped of Silica in the ancient police station's medical section. He then turned to his right. The inklings that were surgeons or medical professionals where moving in and out of that building. In total all the critically injured were caused by him. His machines just gave them a zap with the electric rods... he gave them a nap with blunt force trauma on their heads.

He then walked down the street to see the first set of prisoners leaving. He could see that Merlin lady glaring at him. She did not like that deal one bit at all. But she knew she had lost. She did the sensible thing and submitted as he personally informed her of what will happen next.

(Line Break)

" _Jafn has made it clear_. _Your wounded can not leave until they are healed._ " Said Gwen as she spoke to an arguing Merlin.

" _And I said that will not accept this_."Merlin replied in an angry tone.

" **Ya wil and ya wil lik it**." Said Jafn as he typed in some more words. " **I wil send tem to ya once tey are capoble of moving**." He added as he looked over a report on his holo-screen.

" _You must allow yourself to trust us. Jafn is ignoring important tasks for the well being of your people_." Said Gwen.

" _Fine... But I want my second and a few guards to stay behind. Who know what might happen to Silica when she is left alone with that giant_." She said in an accusing glare.

" **I am not gooing to eat her**." Said Jafn as he glared back.

" _My men will stay, plus you wanted to learn of our culture. That mean you need to observe multiple individuals, not one to understand us_." Said Merlin as she bared her teeth.

Usually it would take a lot to get Jafn mad. Shot in the face, stabbed in the back, extremely unfair fights, never had he been truly holding himself back from knocking someone else into next week. But she did have a point. To fully learn the language, and their ways as a people he would have to observe them in groups. Once he learns every thing he needs to know he will find a way to exploit them and incorporate them into his new plan he had been forming after the battle on that hill.

" **Ya may leave five of yor peeple har** **and send a few mor later**." He reluctantly agreed as he looked at her. " **But ya wil send ta fish** **plus tis list of resources**." Jafn added as he pulled out a piece of paper from his cloak.

He had some inkling he found write it down for him as he or Gwen had yet to learn their writing system. He then handed it to Merlin and she read it. At first was silent, but then came her reply.

" _No_ -" She was quickly silents.

" **I wil tel ya tat I coold resort to raiding**." He added in hope it would change her mind.

" _I will consider some of these demands_." She said in a some what submitting tone.

" **Ten hav a pleasant trip bock**." Was Jafn's last words to her as he turned to walk away.

" _I will have some of our drones help with your departure_." Said Gwen as she bowed and left as well.

* * *

Jafn watched as the first group left. Some limping, others dragging their feet as the realization of how lucky they were to be alive was sinking in. It would have been impossible for absolutely no deaths to occur in that fight. Yet here they are marching out back home in absolute defeat. Though they did manage to destroy some machines; they couldn't win against the tactics Jafn used against them once the walls were breached. The ones that dare look at him looked on in either wonder, fear, or anger and maybe some combination of the three as they marched pass him.

He then looked to his left and saw Merlin's second in command, Commander Vermilion, who was standing right beside him. He was an Inkling he had seen before during the battle two days ago. Jafn remembered him as he was the only one besides Silica to actually harm him during the battle. He used his own men as a distraction so he could hit him in the back with a sledge hammer. When he saw the attack it was too late as it made contact with the unarmored part of his lower back. It did not bring him down though as Jafn grabbed the sledge hammer and returned the favor.

His back was still sore from that. He wanted to rub it; to make the pain go away, but he did not want give the purple tentacle bastard the satisfaction that he had managed to hurt him. Jafn assumed that he was doing the same thing as he was having a hard time standing. Jafn then gave of a heavy sigh.

" _Listen_... _Jafn right_?" Started Vermilion, his correct pronunciation of his name making him do a double check on him.

He was glad about this. It was starting to annoy him how they pronounced his name while pausing before the 'fn' part. Jafn shook his head towards vermilion waiting for him to continue.

" _I may not be a skilled tactician, but I have to ask_. _Why are you letting us go for just a ship and some resources_? _Would you not have gotten a better deal for ransoming us all back to our government_?" Said Vermilion as he was looking on at his comrades.

" **Yor peeple do not hav wat I trooly ned**..." Said Jafn as typed in another word. " **Yet**."

" _What is it that you need_?" He asked.

" **Ya do not ned ta kno**... **Yet**." Jafn said as he looked through his files on his holo-screen.

" _There you are_!" Said a voice from behind Jafn and Vermilion.

It was Silica and the guards Merlin had hand picked to be by Silica's side... constantly. Jafn then turned around to face her and the quartet of guards... Gerome, Felix, Geo, and Serra if he remembered their names correctly. Silica just started to slowly walked up to him with a determined look on her face.

" _Where have you been_?" Asked Silica as she put her hand on her hip. " _I was told by Gwen that you would be learning of our customs today_." She said in a somewhat cheerful mood.

" _You seem awfully happy to teach someone who knocked us all in the head with a bat of light_." Said Vermilion as he stood in front of her to shake her hand. " _We have yet to be properly introduced_. _I am Commander Vermilion_. _We would have been introduced sooner_ , _but you know_." He tilted his head towards Jafn when he finished that sentence.

" _Yeah_... _I am trying not to remember that_." She said as she took his hand and shook it. " _Plus the sooner he is taught the sooner we can leave_." She reasoned as she looked back at Jafn. " _Do you have a quiet place for us to begin_?" She asked him.

Jafn just nodded as he made a hand motion to follow. Before she could followed she looked towards the marching army and waved goodbye to them and wished for a safe trip back home. Most knowing what she did for them waved and thanked her as they passed by. Jafn stood there watching from afar waiting for her to be done. Once she was done she turned to follow Jafn and off they went.

* * *

The walk was quiet as Silica and her guards followed Jafn down the old ancient road. It would seem that his machines had worked to restore said road to it's original condition plus removed most of the snow. She looked to her left and saw said machines carrying equipment for one of the Inkling medics that offered to stay at the hospital and help the injured recover. She then saw more of the machines carrying stone and rubble from what looked to be a construction site.

"Where are they going?" Said Geo as he looked on at the machines.

Jafn didn't answer nor did he look back to acknowledge him. Geo just went with it and continued to look at the machines. To silica he seemed sadden by something as they passed the hospital. It must because of Kevin still recovering in there. He did get beat up bad by Jafn.

"Don't worry. I'm sure he is recovering fine." Said Felix as he put his arm on Geo's shoulder to comfort him.

"Yeah... You're right." He said before turning to silica. "So what are you going to teach him?" He ask as he wanted to change the subject.

"I have had ideas of what I should start with, but... I think the first thing to do is to teach him how to speak, reed and pronounce our words properly." She said as she thought of a few more thing to add. "And maybe our history after words." She said as she was thinking of something else and putting her hand to her chin.

"Well if it is history I could help with tha-" Began Gerome but stopped as he heard some clanking from far away. "What is that noise." He asked as he looked around.

Everyone else stopped to try and listen and see where that clanking sound was coming from. The sound got louder and louder though as they slowly made their way to Jafn who was waiting for them at the end of the street. Once they caught up too him they immediately noticed the source of the sound.

"By the grace of her mighty tentacle" Said Serra as she looked on at the sight.

"Where in the hell did they come from?" Asked Felix as he Stood agape from the source of the sound.

Right in front of them of them were hundreds if not thousands of those machines marching down the other street. It seems they were all going to the other side of the city as they kept marching on. Jafn then took a weird siting position and started to say words in his own language to himself. It seemed to unnerve Silica as she had no clue what he was doing.

" **Ya may want ta set**. **Tis wil bi awale**." He said as he went back to his chanting.

"Umm... What is he doing?" Asked Silica as she wondered if he lost his mind.

"He is doing some kind of meditation." Said Geo as looked on at the marching machine army. "It helps with focus and clarity. It is almost considered a lost art and only practice by that cult in the rual areas back home." Said Geo as he puffed up his chess in pride.

"I think Jafn could teach you if you asked." Said a new voice from behind them.

It was Jafn's 'bio-droid', Gwen. Silica was a bit startled from her sudden appearance as well as her guards who did a better job of hiding it. Gwen was still walking when she came to a halt and stood next to Jafn.

"Well that won't happen anytime soon." Said Geo as he looked back at the machines. "What is up with this army?" He asked as he looked on.

"They just arrived here not to long ago from the other city. They will be taking the resources from this city and going back." Gwen said as the machines appeared to be thinning.

"Resources for what?" Asked Silica.

"For the expansion of Jafn's armies and other projects he has plan." Gwen answered.

"What oth-" Began Silica again but was interrupted by Jafn standing up and getting their attention.

"Gwen. Taht si hgone. Pots gnirewsna ereht snoitseuq." He said in a calm voice.

"Sey Jafn." She replied.

"What did he say?" Asked Felix.

" **I told her ta stoop answerin yor quesjoons**." Said Jafn as he walked ahead .

The last of the machines just avoided him as they went on. The street was clear once he was on the other side. He did another of his hand gestures for them to keep on following.

"I really don't like him." Said Serra as she looked at Gwen.

"Let us just see where this quiet place is." Said Gerome as he continued to follow.

After about five minutes they came into a part of the city that seemed to be in the same rundown condition as the rest. All the buildings that still manages to stand looked like dry white stone from being exposed to the element all this time.

All except one. The building she saw looked to have been brand new as if it was just built. It sort of looked out of place among the rest of the old and archaic buildings. It had a square roofing and looked to be three or four stories high. It had large pictographs displayed on its front above the entrance.

"What is this place?" Asked Gerome.

"And why does it look so new?" Added Silica.

"This is... was the library of the ancient city of Gannan." Said Gwen as she looked around. "It looks new, because Jafn had made it one of his directive to restore all of the libraries he comes across... For reasons that are still unknown to me." She finished as she looked back at Jafn.

Janf however just walked up the steps towards the entrance in silents and held the door open for them to enter. Silica was the first up the stares and walked in followed by Gwen and Serra. Jafn then walked in and closed the door on the others faces.

"That was rude." Said Serra. "Why did you open the door for us." She asked as she looked to see Geo and Gerome come through the doors followed by Felix and Vermilion.

" **I was razed tat way**." Was his only response.

"Raised that way my ass." Said Geo as he caught up. "You seem to have not been that discriminant when you knocked us all out." He added.

" **I treet al egually en a fight**."

"Well thanks... I guess?" Said Silica.

"Does that include children?" Said Geo in an accusing tone.

" **No**... **It es frowned apon to har** -" Jafn started, but to his surprise was interrupted.

"He is just messing with you" Said Felix as he caught up. "He, and most of us don't like you." he said truthful which caused everyone to turn and stare at him.

It was true that they all didn't like him, but you just don't tell someone who can send you flying that you don't like them. Jafn seemed to slow his pace and it looked like his shoulders slumped a little as if he was sadden to hear that. He then just remained quiet. Silica was on the other hand decided to say something.

"I don't dislike you." She said and then notice the odd looks from her guards.

She blushed from the embarrassment of going against the flock, but what could she do. That was her being honest. She held not animosity towards Jafn, mainly because she could not hold a grudge if it would save her life. Jafn seemed to slow down to a stop in the next room and stood there in silence. As if he was in deep though over her words.

"Did he not hit you? Twice?" Asked Geo. "Shouldn't you be even a little pissed with him?" He asked again as his tone rose a little.

"I don't like to hold grudges. Plus we were in the wrong for breaking our word." She said in a calm tone.

"He took our people as hostages!" Said Geo as his tone rose even further.

"There is no right or wrong side in conflict." She said as she walked past him, still maintaining her calm tone. "Just resolution and compromise." She finished as she walked into the room with Jafn.

Geo seemed to calm himself as he caught the comparison between his and her tone. He took a deep breath.

"Listen I know it would be nice if all our problems in the world..." Geo turned to Jafn then back to Silica. "Universe could be solved by talking, but there is a time when violence is the answer." He finished.

"Not talking Geo, but understanding. I don't know Jafn's full story or personality to truly say if I don't like him or not. And yes he may have hit me, but I did get him good too." Silica said as she took in the sight of the room.

The room was large and filled with columns and rows of book shelves. It kind of made her happy to see all of these books. Then all of a sudden her happiness drained from her as she realized that she would be unable to read these books for two reasons. The first is the language barrier and the second was that they may be unreadable after all this time.

"But still you are missing the important part in all this. He started the conflict." Geo said as he seemed to be holding himself back from wanting to say something else.

"He did start it, yes. But we could have ended it differently." She said as she still looked at the old books as they passed by.

" **Looken bock es perfect vision**." Said Jafn as he read what he typed.

"What?" Asked Serra.

"I think he meant hindsight is twenty twenty." Said Vermilion.

"Sorry... my translation software still need to learn more words before it is perfected." Said Gwen as she looked toward Jafn.

"All the more reason to get started on the lessons." Said Silica as she walked up to an old table and sat down. "This is a perfect place to teach." She complemented Jafn as he sat across from her.

Well more like sat on the floor as the chair broke from his weight instantly.

"Did the chair brake from old age or from your weight?" Asked Geo as he laughed at Jafn's misfortune.

"Weight most likely." Answered Gwen. "These chairs were made from freshly cut trees yesterday." Gwen said as she looked over said chairs. "I'll go get the steel chairs from the police station." She told them before leaving.

"Well while we wait, let us begin." Said Silica as she grabbed writing material from her backpack.

* * *

She had been walking around the library for an hour or so after her lesson with Jafn had concluded. She had been looking over all the books that were stacked in rows. Every single one of them were either damaged from the eons of erosion or in the one of the ancients language. Apparently they had hundreds of languages in the time before the floods. It was what Jafn had told her. He also told her that his main tongue is a combination of descendant languages called English, Norsk, Español and some minor influences from the native alien population.

She found it weird that he would speak of aliens so casually, but then again if she had live in a space faring civilization then she to would not have found what he had said weird. She had found some books that had picture of planet on it. Maybe she should bring these back with her and give them to Lier back home when she returns. He would love them even if he would be unable to read them.

She then looked to her guards that were doing the same as her. They were just looking over a few books that had intact pictures. Some showed drawings of very ancient humans using swords and shields to cut each other, and others showed pictures of what their cities looked like before the flood. She walked up behind Geo and Felix who was looking at the former.

"I have to say they are very warlike." Said Felix as he turned the page. "Hey look here Geo I found your ancestor!" He joked as the old drawing depicted a giant squid attacking a sea vessel.

"No it has your eyes. He must be yours." He retorted and laughed back.

"I am about ready to go." Said Silica as she got their attention.

"Yeah it was getting boring in this place." Geo sat up and stretched. "I'll go get the others. You two go on ahead. We'll catch up." He said before walking towards the stairs that lead to the upper level.

"Okay. See ya back at the hospital." Said Felix as he walked towards the exit with Silica in tow.

As soon as they went out the doors into the long hallway Felix noticed that Silica was carying a few books. She saw him looking in a questioning gaze.

"These are for a friend back home. He would love these ancient astronomy books." She said as she lifted them up to show him.

"Are you sure it is okay to be taking books from him?" He asked.

"I am sure it is fine. He did say he does not know this specific language, I think he called it ' _Mandarin_ '" She said and hoped she pronounced the word correctly.

"Just ask him the next time you see him, just too make sure." Said Felix as he opened the door for Silica.

"Thanks, but if you are that worried... Then I will let him know I will be taking these." She said as the went down the stairs and came to a halt.

"Why did yo-" He could not finish his sentence as he looked to were she was looking at.

Off in the distance they could see the outline of the city with the stars in the background. It was both creepy and beautiful to see. Silica then had a thought and smiled.

"I am going to go stargaze. Want to come?" She asked as she headed for the tallest building in the city.

"I don't have a choice in the matter. One of us has to be with you at all times." Informed Felix. "But yes that sounds nice." He added.

It took awhile to get there, but here they were in front of the building. Oddly enough their were some of those shield wielding machines standing in front of the doors. They walked right up to the doors and were quickly blocked from entering.

"Hey whats the big deal!" Said Felix in a surprised tone.

" _Non shall pass_ " Said the black armored machine.

"We just want to stargaze at the top of the building." Said Silica.

" _Non_..." It paused then looked at Silica. " _Shall pass_." It finished.

Felix then leaned over towards Silica.

"I don't like their attitude." Said Felix.

"Can you distract them?" She whispered.

"You really like to stargaze don't you?" He said as he looked back at the machines. "Fine, but wait for me at the top." He said before picking grabbing a bag from hi pack. "Hey tin cans!" He shouted to get there attention. "I found another door on the other side of this building. I am going to enter it." He then ran around the corner.

Silica was wondering if the machines were stupid enough to-

"After him!" Exclaimed the machine as they both took off to chase Felix.

Silica was wondering why they both took off after him, knowing that she was here. She was not going to look a gifted seahorse in the mouth however and quickly went inside, but stopped when she saw movement to her side. She looked to see a couple that she had seen in the hospital walking hand in hand to the building across from her. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out why they were this far out away from prying eyes.

She then just ignored them and walked into the building. It was very dark and the only light that was coming in was from the stars through the windows. She looked around until she found the stairs and was about to go up them until she thought of something.

"Does the elevator work here?" She said out loud to no one in particular.

She saw that there indeed was an elevator, but if it worked or not was another thing. She press the button with the symbol of an up facing arrow. After about a minute of waiting and constantly pressing the button she figured it was broken. She was about to walk away until she heard a ding and the sound of sliding doors.

She looked inside and walked in. Everything looked oddly new. This must be another of Jafn's few personnel buildings he restores to proper condition. It explains the guards. She walked in and pressed the button at the top. It took her as far as it would go. Once she was at the top she looked around. There was a small amount of lighting. She looked around and could see wiring all over the place.

She then walked around some more to see if there is another way to get to the roof. After a few minutes of walling around she found the stairs that lead to the roof. She opened the door and went strait up.

* * *

The sun had been down for quiet some time now and the stormy clouds that had plagued this side of the mountains had finally cleared out. Jafn was using this chance by sitting on top of the tallest building in the ruined city. He looked up into the sky and saw the whole Galaxy and its splendor. He had actually been looking for a specific star since the end of his first lesson with Silica.

He had remained silent through out the entire lesson with only the occasional question asked here and there. But he was currently trying to understand this Silica as he viewed the sky. She seemed to calm for a person in her situation. She even seemed to be a little too forgiving, but Jafn could see her logic though. She and by extension the rest of her kind and what ever else evolved on this planet; they don't know him or his kind. He and his people are honorable conquerors... they are just currently being lead by a secretive xenophobic leader.

That will not end well though. Especially since that xenophobe broke a galactic law by committing genocide of an entire race on a new colonial world. It won't be long before his people find out and rise up in rebellion. It also wont belong before the rest of the Galaxy finds out. Who would want to have a neighbor that would make you go extinct if they had the chance. They would probably strike after the rebellion is crushed or it weakens the main governments ability to defend itself.

If only he had killed him sooner... maybe his people, his family would not have to confront the impending struggle that will occur if not soon then with in the next century. He then spotted the star he was looking for. It took him almost all night, but he finally found it. It was his birth system. Tau Ceti. His family had been in charge of that system since the end of the unification wars. He hopped for the best. He then turned his head and looked down over the city.

It was some what haunting to see a city with no lights on, but oddly it felt serine and peaceful. He then notice a single light turn on in the next skyscraper. He was now annoyed. He had made it clear to Silica and her guards that no one is allowed to roam his city with out an escort. It is still in ruins after all. Someone could get hurt. He was about to get up when he heard a feminine voice from behind.

" _I wouldn't bug them if I were you_." Said the female voice.

He didn't catch all of what she said, but by her tone he knew what she meant. He then typed in his translator but was stopped by a hand from behind pushing his arm down.

" _Try to speak without that_." Said the voice.

"Jafn turned to see Silica standing behind him. She then walked next to him and sat down beside him. Jafn was wondering how she found him. He had not even told Gwen were he was.

" **H** - **How**?" He said trying his hardest to pronounce the word right, though it came out a little forced.

" _I did not know you would be up here_."She said causing Jafn to think and translate what she said in his head.

" **Why can't bug**?" Jafn said as he was getting the hang of pronouncing the words.

Now all that was left was to learn the grammar, more words and try not to make every word sound like it was being forced out.

" _They are a couple from the hospital_." She said as she looked on into the sky. " _Which star is your home_?" She then asked.

Jafn then decided to relax and tell Gwen to escort the love squids from the building.

"Gwen there is a couple copulating on the tenth floor in the building across from the main tower. Escort them back to the hospital." Jafn finished as he he heard a beep from his radio showing that Gwen acknowledge his order and was on her way.

He then turned to Silica and pointed up to a star.

" **Home**." He said in a sadden tone. " **Why you here**?" he then asked.

Silica looked up to see the star Jafn was pointing at. She saw it... she hoped, because there were so many in that general direction he pointed in she couldn't really know which one was which yet.. She then decided to answer his question.

" _I had a friend who would take me out of the city with his sister. We would go into the rural areas and stargaze all night. I thought this building would make a great place to view the stars_." She said as she tried to get up. " _If I am bugging you then I will leave_." She added.

" **No**. **You not bugging**." Jafn said as he looked over the city again.

They just sat there for the next few minutes watching the stars. Silica then got his attention as she held some books in front of him.

" _Can I have these_?" She asked.

Jafn took one from her and opened them up. They were outdated star constellations. Twelve thousands years of stellar drift would be a very noticeable difference. He compared the stars he was seeing with the one on the map.

" **Yes**." He answered back as he pointed to the stars in the book and back to the sky.

" _I haven't yet notice how different the stars in these books looked_." She said as she saw some familiar and misshapen constellations. " _Stellar Drift_?" She asked to which Jafn turned his head in confusion. " _Oh sorry_! _I forgot that you don't know all our word yet_. _Star moving_." She said as she clarifide what she said.

Jafn just shook his head and agreed. He then heard some light footsteps running up the stairs. He turned to look behind himself to see the green tentacled Inkling, Felix, burst through the door and closed the door behind him. He seemed to be out of breath.

" _Silica I could not out run them, they are right behind m-_..." Felix turned to see Silica sitting next to Jafn. " _Good you're here. Please call of your guards_!" He all but shouted.

It looked like he was going to say something else when the door burst open to reveal an armless and legless drone hopping after Felix and a second one missing its shield.

"Get back here you green sushi I am not done with you yet!" It said in an annoyed tone.

"Halt!" Said Jafn. "These one's are allowed passage up here." He turned to Felix then back to his drones. "Go get repaired and have unit one dash twenty fill your post until then." He ordered to which the drones followed unquestioningly.

Jafn then sat back down and patted a spot for Felix to sit.

"Th-thank you." Felix said as he caught his breath. " _I had to run up all those stairs to get here_." He said as he took another breath.

" _Why didn't you take the elevator_?" Silica asked.

He looked back at her in a sad and pitiful state.

" _There was an elevator_?" He asked in bewilderment.

Jafn then just tuned them out and went back to watching the stars. After a while they began to quiet down and watch with him.

* * *

 **Okay I said it would be out on the weekend... It is Monday as I finished up typing this sentence.**

 **It would have been up loaded sooner, but I had to rewrite this chapter. I feel like it turned out better than the one I started with.**

 **The next chapter will be up in two weeks. Why? Because the next chapter is the beginning of the next arc and I have IRL things to do.**


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